I remember / je me souviens

I remember / je me souviens

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For those limbic bursts of nostalgia, invented by Proust, miniaturized by Nicholson Baker, and freeze-dried by Joe Brainard in his I remember and by Georges Perec in his Je me souviens.

But there are no fractions, the world is an integer
Like us, and like us it can neither stand wholly apart nor disappear.
When one is young it seems like a very strange and safe place,
But now that I have changed it feels merely odd, cold
And full of interest.
--John Ashbery, "A Wave"

Sometimes I sense that to put real confidence in my memory I have to get to the end of all rememberings. That seems to say that I forego remembering. And now that strikes me as an accurate description of what it is to have confidence in one's memory.
--Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason

Sunday, February 10, 2002

I remember flat topped milk cartons with little wax cords attached to the one inch-corner square you could pull out.

I remember when soda cans got pull tops. And when the metal rings pushed the metal into the can.

I remember "You like it. It likes you."

I remember sucking the iced wool on my gloves when I was out sledding. You'd warm your hands and quench your thirst, and then it would all ice up again and you could repeat that experience of tasting water and smelling wool.

I remember thinking in first grade, "At least I'm in a grade."

posted by william 3:51 PM
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