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

Friday, February 02, 2007

I remember how much I used to love collecting the plastic toothpicks in the shape of swords -- sabers they were, though I didn't know it then. They came in different colors, and I think I got them with drinks, not hors d'oeuvres, so I could only get a few at a time. What were they doing in drinks, though? Maybe they came with the Sangria at La Fonda Del Sol? It's pretty hazy.

posted by william 1:26 PM
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