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, January 16, 2004
I remember, I think, the introduction of Poptarts. They were really cool. No frosting or sprinkles at the time. You ate them as they were, or put them in the toaster. I was never patient enough for that. Besides, I liked the underdone dough-taste the raw Poptarts had. Having access to the jam only through the soft crust was a new experience -- unlike, say, that of Oreos and certainly unlike bread and jam.


posted by william 11:27 AM
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