The corpse, seen without God and outside of science, is the utmost of abjection. It is death infecting life. Abject. It is something rejected from which one does not part, from which one does not protect oneself as from an object. Imaginary uncanniness and real threat, it beckons to us and ends up engulfing us.
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When the occasion arose, she preferred to use the word pantomnesia, he the term déjà vu.
She argued that pantomnesia has Greek roots meaning “all” or “universal” — panto — and “mind” or “memory” — mnesia — and therefore is a more technically accurate term.
He suggested that she was a snob.
She said that déjà vu simply means “already seen” and refers specifically to visual experience, when there is so much, so very much more in experiencing the unfamiliar as familiar.
He reminded her that they had had this conversation before.
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Joy Williams | “Her Eyes Were Set Rather Close Together, Which Gave Her an Urgent Air”