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

Thursday, November 30, 2006

I remember when Mom, Billy and I went to Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey - a huge endeavor since Daddy wasn't with us for some reason. I don't remember how we got there, if we drove - something Mommy didn't do too often. I think we drove. I was only about 5 years old. But, to our dismay, the amusement park was CLOSED! We were completely crestfallen, and I remember sitting in the parking lot on a railroad tie (is that what they are called? The heavy wooden slats that the rails lie on?).

I remember the commercial: "Palisades Amusement Park, swings all day till after dark,....Ride the coaster get cool in the waves in the pool, you'll have fun! So come on over."

We never went back and eventually it closed down.
So, all I have from the promise of accepting the commercial's invitation is the memory of the splinter.

posted by caroline 4:51 AM
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