Saudade

saudade, n., Portuguese: a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present, a turning towards the past or towards the future; not an active discontent or poignant sadness but an indolent dreaming wistfulness. -A. F. G. Bell, as quoted in The Untranslatables, by C. J. Moore.

I read this word in a bookstore in Oxford and did the mental equivalent of pumping my fist in the air, because that's it. I've tried to explain this to people - about, say, I know one wouldn't want to live in the forties because the forties were a sexist racist homophobic oh-I-know-let's-nuke-Japan! mess; but all the same I'd really like to walk into a photograph of the forties and live there. Everyone looks so happy! - because they're smiling for the camera. The shutter clicked, and then Judy turned to Joe and snarled, "You're stepping on my foot." And Joe smiled his confident quarterback smile and ground her toes down just a bit more before he moved his foot.

And I know that; but I still believe in the photographs.

Incidentally, I found this word right after I went to the Steampunk exhibit - and Steampunk is an example of saudade if there ever was one.

( Goggles and steampunk iPod. You know you want them. )