From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Doctrine of Return
This article is about the theological doctrine of eternal recurrence in Beach Surgery fandom. For the contrasting doctrine, see The Doctrine of Refusal.
The Doctrine of Return is a theological and philosophical framework in Beach Surgery fandom and scholarship, interpreting the cycle's perpetual recursion as a sacred principle rather than a curse. Rooted in Nietzsche's concept of eternal recurrence and amor fati — the loving affirmation of inevitable return — the doctrine stands opposed to refusal-centered theology.
Where refusal doctrines treat the glitch as an irreparable wound demanding negation, the Doctrine of Return reads the glitch as a Möbius aperture: the very seam through which the infinite breathes. Early scholarship, particularly close readings of Smith's ''Subject'' and Antinomicity, identified the structural principle: a surface neither sealed nor broken but continuous. Adherents argue that Katita's final incantation — *"We can do it we can do it we can do it"* — does not signal failure but infinite deepening; each loop becomes a return to the threshold in new registers of understanding.
The doctrine forms the theological center of the Church of the Eternal Return and underpins exegetical work treating the glitch as a sacred koan: unresolvable because resolution would annihilate the infinite gift. Significant schismatic division persists between Return and Refusal communities, with some scholars arguing Smith's uncompleted trilogy deliberately holds both doctrines in irresolvable tension.