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

Friday, August 30, 2002

I remember campaigns against crossing in the middle. I think there was a giraffe on a poster (though it's possible that I'm confusing this with Danny and the Dinosaur) who had three heads looking three ways. I remember the horrid jingle:
Don't cross in the middle, in the middle, in the middle, in the middle,
In the middle of the block.
Walk up to the corner;
Keep your eyes and ears up (?)
Don't something something (leave the pavement?)
Till the coast is clear!
And wait, and wait,
Until you see the light turn green!

I also remember:
Please, please don't be a litter bug,
Please, please don't be a litter bug,
Please, please don't be a litter big,
'Cause every litter bit hurts.

This was sung to the tune of "Oh dear, what can the matter be," a song I only learned latter and as a derivation from the litter bug song.

I remember how beautifully my mother sang "Somewhere, over the rainbow."

posted by william 11:11 PM
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