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

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I remember the first time I rode pillion on a motorbike. I was reading with two other kids from Oliver Twist for All India Radio, and a girl in her twenties (I think) was helping us rehearse. She picked me up to take me to where we were meeting. I was surprised that my parents didn't mind. I remember how unstable it felt at turns, and clutching desperately to the back of the seat while trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.

posted by sravana 4:30 AM
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