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

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I remember / je me souviens
I remember when we would drive to the country house in the winter or colder months and arrive late at night. I had usually fallen asleep in the car and I remember the contrast of leaving the warm, dark car and entering the cold, lit-up house. Groggy from the car trip, I'd wait in my jacket for the house to warm up enough for me to take off my clothes and get into bed, the sheets of which were still cold. When they finally warmed up, I could sleep the night.

posted by caroline 4:50 PM
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