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

Thursday, March 25, 2004

I remember the first time I saw a tennis court. I don't remember where it was. I think my parents' friends the Lindenstrauses were around, and maybe the Herings. But I saw the court with my mother. It was early in the morning, shadowy. I think I recall dew. The court seemed overgrown -- long grass by the rusted fence. I believe I recall how cool it all was (which means it must have been a hot summer), and the referee's seat and a bench by the fence at the net for spectators. I had no idea what tennis was -- I just remember the court, the slack net, the white peeling paint on the seat and bench. I think my mother told me that tennis was an adult game, and this might have seemed somewhat odd to me, since I thought of games as the province of children.

posted by william 5:34 AM
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