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


Monday, July 14, 2003
I remember that the Cubs couldn't win a pennant because there were no lights in beautiful Wrigley field, which meant they played all their summer home games in the heat of the day, which meant they were exhausted at the end of the summer and kept losing to their fresher rivals. I remember Ernie Banks ("let's play two!") standing in front of the beautiful brick outfield fence. Still I loathed them (though I loved Banks) for being the rivals of my beloved Mets.


posted by william 8:06 PM
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