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, November 30, 2007

I remember how happy I was when I got Tommy. It was expensive, a double album. I had heard, on the radio I think, "Tommy" itself, but many of the songs were revelations. "Got a feeling twenty-one is gonna be a good year." And I'd had no idea -- hard to believe now -- about "Pinball Wizard." I think Hugh had a copy first, but of course none of us had seen Tommy and we put it together from the songs. Hugh as usual seemed to have expert knowledge. But there were all these songs that I discovered entirely on my own, just from listening. I remember that I put the records on my father's stereo, in the living room where the piano that I didn't practice that night was. What a treat to listen to Tommy instead of practicing.

posted by william 11:53 PM
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