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


Friday, December 25, 2020

I remember the feeling of not being at ease on visits to Nellore, the stark difference between that and the joy and comfort of my other grandparents, as I grew older, the guilt of feeling that way. I remember everything being slightly stifling: the weather, the lack of real bookstores or cable TV, the badly lit wallpapered bedroom, the unbearably hot front room where the women socialized, and the cordial but formal interactions with my grandparents.



posted by sravana 8:39 PM
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