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

Monday, June 19, 2023

I remember being surprised and skeptical when we were told in 7th grade Latin that videtur meant seems -- our book claimed that seems means is seen [as]. I thought (and still think), that seems is a weaker form of the categorical is.
A judgment which reminds me now that we did "The Emperor of Ice Cream" in high school -- what reminds me of that is the line in that poem: "Let be be finale of seem." I remember being impressed by Mr. McCormick's showing us the sexual imagery in the poem: "the concupiscent curds." I think I remember that he explained what a deal dresser was.

posted by William 4:25 PM
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