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

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

I remember my parents' getting me chestnuts on the street when it was very cold in New York. I was surprised that ice-cream or pretzel vendors also had this wonderful hot bag to warm your hands on. I loved holding the hot bag of chesnuts in the cold, and watching them steam. I was surprised, later on, how little I liked chestnut puree or marron glace.

posted by william 5:23 PM
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