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, April 12, 2007
I remember seeing Wanda June and then Kurt Vonnegut talking to the audience after. I liked his novels, but was never a play person. Seeing him in real life was interesting, but not as interesting as reading him. He claimed to be "frightfully funny" which is why the younger generation and counterculture liked him. I didn't realize he was funny, in high school. I can't remember if he made the claim that night or on TV.


posted by william 12:17 AM
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