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, June 20, 2020

I remember that after reading an old reprint of a Batman comic (the older comics were reprinted in large paperback format, like Calvin and Hobbes now: I hated the lantern jawed Superman from before my time; mine was much more dashing and elegant, and I liked, after being surprised by it the first time I read the D.C. comics, the steel-blue highlights in his hair) -- I remember learning from that comic how Batman's parents were killed one evening and he was left an orphan, which catalyzed his decision to fight against crime. Within the next couple of evenings my parents told me they were going out to some event or party, and I got very frightened that they would get murdered. My father, was half-dressed. He always changed when they went out in the evening, and I remember his tuxedos in general but the time I speak of I was too young to have noticed how formally he was dressing, only that he was getting ready to go out. I remember this scene occurring in the bathroom in our old apartment (2G) where he was shaving or putting on cologne or aftershave. He stopped what he was doing and took a lot of time to reassure me, sitting on the closed toilet so that his face was at my height, and his comforting worked. Since I don't have many memories of feeling concern for him as a small child -- I felt much more fear than love for him -- I am very glad to have this memory, both of anxiety on his behalf and of relief, gratitude, and love for his authority.

posted by William 11:48 AM
. . . 0 comments

Friday, June 19, 2020

I remember my father wouldn't let me go to sleep without taking off my watch. But James Bond (Sean Connery) slept with his watch on!

posted by William 2:13 AM
. . . 0 comments

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