The Lunar Time of Study: A Rhythmanalysis of Education’s Endarkenment

This article proposes a necessary link between studying and nighttime. This connection manifests itself in four dimensions of study. First, in the use of stars to mark the best things in a text. Second, the rhythmic nature of studying a text (turning pages and returning to passages marked with stars) replicates the unending ebb and flow of the tides under the influence of the moon. Third, the studier undergoes a monstrous transformation from a productive citizen to an addict, not unlike the transformation of the human into the werewolf. And finally, the studier ultimately studies the darkness of texts, finding in that darkness a new potentiality. These four dimensions are then compared to the diurnal, linear repetitions of the traditional classroom and the activity of learning.