Thursday, December 02, 2004

The trouble with the word "punctum" is it doesn't sound like what it's meant to signify. It always makes me think of The Fat Controller in Thomas the Tank Engine--the sound of the word is portly and punctilious. (Unlike jouissance, which feels swoony, langorous, voluptuous, dissipatory). "Studium", though, is perfect, the sagging quality of the "ium" conveying the sense of chore, of slogging through something improving and well-wrought/well-meant.

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