Ripping up bits of paper

Feb 18, 2006 16:39


Read more... )

Leave a comment

Comments 12

allida February 19 2006, 13:43:31 UTC
My best friend in High School (who incidentally is now working for the US government in Iraq, though not in the capacity of actually being a member of the Army, though she is in the National Guard and would have had to go anyway. She is a contractor making ass-loads of money for something she was going to have to do anyway {fixing helicopters}) used to tear up pieces of paper in pure rage, and it was the only outward sign of her emotion she allowed. I knew her very well, so I could tell how angry she was even before she would tear pieces of paper into 4mm square bits (yes that's 2mm X 2mm: TINY) methodically and pile them up in front of her on the table ( ... )

Reply

rwillmsen February 19 2006, 17:35:26 UTC
Is your hair really dead? I'd never thought of it as such.

Chinese people often laugh when they're nervous or embarrassed, male or female, which is confusing and kind of aggravating the first, ooh, three hundred and thirty times it happens. I didn't see many visibly angry Chinese women around, so you must have a point there. I think on the whole Chinese people only show their anger as an absolute last resort.

Sorry to hear about your friend. At the risk of appearing glib, I guess there must be a direct connection between self-harm and voting Republican.

Reply


liukaiqin February 19 2006, 17:16:14 UTC
I don't rip things up but I make sure that if I had to, I could. A piece of paper to which a person is sufficiently bound that he or she is unable to bear the thought of hurting it is a BAD piece of paper.

Reply

rwillmsen February 19 2006, 17:36:37 UTC
What about love letters though? I suppose they just kind of turn bad with time...

Reply

liukaiqin February 20 2006, 18:21:40 UTC
They're worth much more than the paper they're written on. The letter itself is a piece of language, which you can't rip up... But you know, I'm being terribly hypocritical. The more I write Chinese, the less I feel like ripping up paper - I'm really starting to understand the pre-printing Chinese sentiment that a piece of paper with characters on it must be disposed of ceremoniously or not at all :)

Reply

rwillmsen February 23 2006, 15:50:57 UTC
Yeah I know exactly what you mean, it took me about 5,000 years of dedicated learning to be able to write my name in Chinese, and when I could finally managed it unaided I didn't feel like ripping it straight up and chucking it in the bin.

Oddly enough, though, I never needed to write in any official situation. When I protested to the woman in the bank that it was useless me trying to sign a piece of paper in Chinese, and she would just have to accept my western signiture just like all the other times, she made me enlist the help of a totally random stranger, who, upon scribbling

... )

Reply


vic_dakin February 24 2006, 17:37:24 UTC
I rip up letters from the tv licence people.And any mail my ex girlfriend gets after she nicked 100 cd's out me gaff.

Reply


vic_dakin February 24 2006, 17:39:11 UTC
do you think Tony blair ripped up the rsvp to david kelly's funeral?

Reply

rwillmsen February 24 2006, 19:16:00 UTC
I think David Blunkett probably tried to get his dog to piss on it, with hilarious consequences.

Really, that's a sitcom that's dying to be made.

Reply


vic_dakin February 27 2006, 16:34:33 UTC
A sitcom. 'Tony and me' A blind man in Camelot.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up