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, June 09, 2002

I remember when they put convex mirrors in the elevator. I never saw the point, though they said it was to prevent crime (you could see who was coming; but really you only got a different angle on whoever was already in the elevator, or just stepping in). This was roughly the same time that they started saying that "all visitors must be announced." You used to be able just to walk into the building.

I remember signing in with my parents at their office buildings, after 6 and on weekends. I always thought they'd want indentification, or that they'd challenge us, but they never did, even when I was alone.

posted by william 3:52 AM
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