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, January 05, 2003
I remember some TV show -- I'm sure it's well-known what it is, but it's slipped my mind -- that had a four act structure, with epilogue. Every fifteen minutes a title would go up saying it was the next act. It made it look profound and serious, though I'm pretty sure it was a police drama. The epilogue lasted one scene. I think this is where I learned the word "epilogue."


posted by william 7:30 AM
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