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

Sunday, May 02, 2004

I remember the way my father sat with his left elbow on the open car-window sill, casual and competent and cool and relaxed as he drove. I reached up to put my elbow on the sill but was made to bring my arm back in: too dangerous! So now it seemed a glamorous and adult thing to do; adults were just the right height, and they had just the right command of the space around them to do this. The pose was beautiful, maybe the automotive version of holding a cigarette casually. I like driving that way now, and recognize that it's not just a natural and relaxed thing to do with my arm, but (for me) a willed imitation of my father's posture.

posted by william 11:26 PM
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