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, April 22, 2002

I remember Esso. Of course you can still get it in Canada and in Europe, but I remember it here. I also seem to remember the jingle: "Esso helps your car stay young! / Esso extra gasoline helps the car your driving / Stay alive / And young. / Young is the name of the game when it's all said and done." I think ad jingles have improved.

I remember that the Esso tiger was virtually indistinguishable for me from the Frosted Flakes tiger.

I remember tipping the gas station attendant. I remember that you could get your oil checked for free, and that maps were free, and that there was no self-service.

I remember wondering why when they checked the dip stick they wiped off the oil, since there was so little oil to begin with. (I thought the oil was contained only in the sheathe of the dip stick.)

posted by william 2:40 PM
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