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

Monday, March 18, 2002

I remember the President's Council on Physical Fitness and the light blue pamphlet of calisthenics they distributed. There was a picture of President Johnson, with signature, on the first page. I also remember the Royal Canadian Air Force book of exercises, and the testimonials from aging pilots that it came with. (I think I sort of remembered all this on September 11, when the question or fantasy or idea that the fit pilots might have fought the hijakers off arose.)

posted by william 3:25 PM
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