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


Saturday, June 22, 2002
I remember flight-bags -- my parents used to get them when they flew to Europe, maybe on charter flights. They had these lovely blue Swissair flight bags, which were perfect for carrying things around in. They gave me one which I used to carry my books in, till it was completely tattered and peeling and dilapidated. Now Swissair is gone too.


posted by william 7:11 AM
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