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, April 27, 2013

I remember that on the way to the United States, on the SS Saturnia, I wore a pair of trousers made out of an army blanket, and continued to wear those trousers for a while after our arrival, in February, 1947. During the post-war period in Italy, army blankets and other army supplies were sold surreptitiously, and were prized for their warmth and the quality of the wool. U.S. Army blankets were the most easily available. They were olive drab and had a big US sign indelibly printed in the middle. They were less prized than other blankets, because they had to be dyed and the tailor had to cut around the US logo. I had a coat made out of a US blanket dyed brown, while I was in Italy. Sometimes the subterfuge failed and the military police would identify something made out of a US blanket and take it right off the wearer. The most popular blanket was the Australian army blanket, which was made of the most wonderful wool, was a medium gray, and had two blue lines running in the middle across its length. While ways had to be found to eliminate the blue lines, no dyeing was necessary, and the quality was superb. I don't remember whether I had an Australian Army blanket garment, but I do remember that gray army socks, presumably Australian, were unraveled and made into balls of yarn which were then knitted into a sweater for me. We also had an experiment with a parachute, which was a beautiful blue white, sily and satiny to the touch. Nevertheless, an attempt to turn it into a blouse proved disastrous, mainly if I recall correctly because it was completely slippery.

I also remember the footwear we wore in Italy during the war and immediately after. The soles of the sandals were sometimes made of cork, which was relatively elegant. Many sandals, though, were soled with two pieces of wood, joined, at the point were the toes bend when one steps, by a piece of leather nailed by four nails to effect the joint. Modern platform shoes always remind me of those wooden soles. I was found of that kind of sandal because the thick wood made me look taller and more sophisticated. The problem was that the nails regularly came out and dug into people's bare feet, so that most of us had some sort of stigmata on the soles of our feet.

posted by alma 9:40 PM
. . . 0 comments

Thursday, April 11, 2013

I remember the guest room, which we rarely spent time in, and as a consequence, had a little bit of novelty, a little less familiarity, the feeling of not quite being at home, like spending a night in a relative's guest room.

posted by sravana 6:01 PM
. . . 0 comments

Monday, April 08, 2013

I remember that characters in books played chess on a chess table. It seemed so ritualistic, luxurious, and a bit wasteful -- a table whose sole function was the occasional game. I remember wondering if they had chess chairs too, or if they repurposed other chairs. The tables were not repurposed, as far as I could tell, because the game usually started with the players getting out the chess table.

posted by sravana 9:46 PM
. . . 0 comments

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