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

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

I remember Levy's Real Jewish Rye. The subway ads showed people of all races grinning, faces alight, as they ate a slice. The copy was: "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's Real Jewish Rye." I think these were the prototypes of the later United Colors of Benneton ads. Every single one of these ads in the New York subways was defaced in some charming and essentially innocent way -- moustaches, missing teeth, and so on. But the luminous smiles of the people enjoying the bread shone through. Somehow the ads were designed to be defaced: it was part of the urban experience, and part of the very variety the ads were celebrating. I remember a lot of Asians in the ad, including a young girl. With a missing front tooth she looked even cuter and to be taking even more pleasure in her Levy's than she would have otherwise. I sort of liked Levy's, but not as much as the bakery rye bread from Cake Masters that my grandparents used to get.

I remember "Rat Fink means good bread." The trucks were everywhere. But I don't think I've ever seen Rat Fink bread.

posted by william 1:00 AM
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