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, May 02, 2006

I remember that there were three light bulbs in the fixture of my room, over a frosted glass reverberator, I think it might be called. I remember my father bringing the step-ladder in to change a bulb. Later, I could do it myself, but I would usually wait until only one bulb was left. I could easily get used to two instead of three, but one made the room seem really dim. Then I'd put two in, and suddenly it was brilliantly, even sterilely, lit again. But my eyes got used to the very bright light quickly as well. Later I got a standing bedside lamp, and I liked to read by its light. I remember rocking it back and forth a little bit to position it perfectly, and to cast the light just the way I wanted (when I rocked it towards me), and just for the pleasure of rocking it.

posted by william 11:39 PM
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