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


Sunday, September 25, 2011
I remember doing yard work. I hated it. I hated raking--or maybe I remember raking most, since there was so much raking to do. I remember the boiling screaming fury I felt at my parents for making me, and how my rage would drive me at the work. And I remember how, even worse, once I'd finished the section or the task, despite my determination to stay angry, I did feel proud.


posted by Rosasharn 6:50 PM
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