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, August 22, 2005

I remember the subway ad for the Roach Motel "Roaches check in but they never check out!" It was one of those collective jokes which united New Yorkers in the common cause against the enemy. "We're pretty sneaky, aren't we?" it conveyed. Us against them.
I also remember the public service spots on TV with the kid jumping on a diving board several times to get height and the sound off splashing water and laughing and playing, but then cut to an empty swimming pool and silence - the message being "don't use drugs--you don't know what you are jumping into..."
I also remember the spot with a little girl calling "here, kitty, kitty, kitty!" and it turned out to be a rat she was coaxing with her piece of bread.
These two spots most probably contributed to me deciding to work with film.
I also remember begging my mother and brother to let me go with them to see the film about Sacco and Venzetti who were unfairly tried and sent to the electric chair.
My mother and brother thought I was too young for the film, but I loved it and was outraged at the injustice.
I also remember seeing the Apu trilogy with them and loving it. Satjajit Ray has most definitely influenced my film career and I mention him and the Apu trilogy in a book I wrote a chapter for as well as an article.
Glad mom and Billy brought me along!

posted by caroline 7:34 AM
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