Infinite-loop motif

The infinite-loop motif is the concept, typically in a song, picture, or story, of the same content being repeated (precisely repeated, and endlessly repeated) at the point that would in most works be the end of that content. (This is in contrast with songs that have a logical, even if seldom-reached, ending point, as with 99 Bottles of Beer.)

There are two main types of infinite loops: infinite cycles, and infinite recursion.

An example of an infinite cycle can be found in the children's song "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt". The lyrics and melody don't come to a natural stopping point; those who teach it carry it on by resuming at the start, and the effect is the same as an infinite loop in computing.

One of the most common examples of an infinite recursion is a story. The words vary from telling to telling, but it goes something like this:

It was a dark and stormy night. The children huddled around the old man's chair. "Tell us a story!" they pleaded. "All right," said the old man, and this is the story he told:

"It was a dark and stormy night. The children huddled around the old man's chair. 'Tell us a story!' they pleaded. 'All right,' said the old man, and this is the story he told:

"'It was a dark and stormy night...

Another example of the infinite-loop motif is available in the self-referential song "The Song That Never Ends".

In fiction, Eric Rucker Eddison's fantasy novel The Worm Ouroboros implies the same motif simply by having the final situation match the initial one, and having the first paragraph of the physical document precisely duplicated as the final paragraph. It has been published with cover art depicting an Ouroboros, in another evocation of the motif.

The works of M. C. Escher contain many variations of both infinite cycles and infinite recursion.