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

Monday, July 12, 2004

I remember Pan-X (ASA 100) and Tri-X (ASA 400) black and white film. I think they still exist, but aren't the preferred versions any more. I remember (I think) that Pan-X came in purple-ornamented boxes, and Tri-X in green. The green was thrilling, and Tri-X had the same prestige for me that deconstruction would have later. It seemed inscrutably self-possessed and fast. I liked the idea of fast film too, of using that word in a way slightly different from the way it applied to cars or runners. I also remember color film, as having I think an ASA either of 80 or of 125: something you had to fiddle with on the light meter.

posted by william 10:37 AM
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