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

Saturday, September 26, 2009

I remember going to see Alicia de Larrocha play in Philharmonic Hall (I think) with my father. We were amazed by how small she was but how tremendous her reach was. When she played fortissimo, you could see her whole body reverberating with the force she applied to the keys. She looked sweet and benevolent when not playing, and ferocious when she played.

posted by William 11:39 PM
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