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


Tuesday, April 20, 2010
I remember lying in bed frozen and terrified about a soon-due science research project. Five typed pages about seashore ecosystems. At least five different sources. Due within days, and I hadn't even gone to the library yet. I remember the tight cold feeling all in my chest and promising myself I would do the work tomorrow, so I could sleep now. And I did.


posted by Rosasharn 11:00 PM
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