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, January 12, 2008
I remember Caravel candy bars. Do they still have them? They were the first candy bars I had because of seeing them on commercials. I think Hugh recommended them too. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't pronounce the name (or reliably spell it -- and the cursive caramel-colored writing didn't make it any easier, as with the Montreal Expos logo), but I eventually tried one and it was delicious -- much better than I would ever have expected from the commercials. In this way they contrasted with Mounds (which do still exist). Mounds looked great in the commercials, but were just tasteless chocolate over repulsive coconut.


posted by william 5:42 PM
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