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

Saturday, November 11, 2006

I remember the only time I flew kites during the festival (in Hyderabad, when once we overstayed the winter). I cut about half a dozen kites. I felt a smug sense of victory -- for one thing, it was fascinating how sharp the string could be, and for another, I guessed that most of the other kite flyers were boys, and probably more experienced than I was. But I also felt a little guilty, like I was doing something slyly cruel. Everytime I brought one down, I felt for the owner -- the movements of a kite being trapped are so desperate and sorry. And I probably personified the kite itself, in its struggling. Of course, my kite was eventually cut too, but I didn't care much, mostly because I was tired and was waiting to stop.

posted by sravana 12:50 AM
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