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

Friday, September 24, 2004

I remember the little silver-handed, pointing-finger pointer always up on the podium for reading the Torah, although I don't recall anyone actually ever using it. I got to hold the Torah open from time to time (there are I know names for these implements and offices but I never knew what they were), to be one of the kids gravely head-bent around the podium as the older, more knowledgeable kids or young adults did the reading. And I loved that pointer and wanted to use it or at least see it used. But I never did. I remember the velvet case for the Torah. I remember that if you made a mistake in transcribing it (I remember all Torahs were hand-transcribed) you had to start again at the beginning. I remember the ark and the ritual of taking the Torah out and putting it back. But I loved that little silver hand most.

posted by william 5:06 PM
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