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


Thursday, March 07, 2019
I remember Petticoat Junction, and that later, when I heard of Peyton Place, I thought it was Petticoat Junction: I didn't bring the original title back to mind, even Peyton Place did bring the show I'd watched back to mind. This confusion made TV show seem more scandalous to me even as it sanitized the idea of Peyton Place, reducing it to an inoffensive American sitcom.


posted by William 12:47 AM
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