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 01, 2005

I remember that my great-great-grandmother had one or two large torches (flashlights) always with her. She'd use them if she needed to get up at night, although she could have just flicked on a light switch –- I suppose she was more comfortable with having light at hand, after using lamps and candles to light her night way for most of her life. For a long time, I associated flashlights with her, because I didn't see them much in any other context. Also, having interacted with her so little, I probably needed an object association to remember her at all.

posted by sravana 12:23 AM
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