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is great for doing lots of things, but not chopping.

Chopsticks are great for doing lots of things. Not chopping though.

is one of the reasons the Chinese never invented custard.

Chopsticks are one of the reasons the Chinese never invented custard.

is a utensil by which, unlike the knife and fork, food becomes no longer a prey to which one does violence, but a substance harmoniously transferred.

by chopsticks, food becomes no longer a prey to which one does violenee (meat, ßesh over whieh one does batde), but a substanee harmoniously transferred; they transform the pre­ viously divideJ substance into bird food and rice inta a flow of milk; maternal, they tirelessly perform thc gesrurf~ which crcates the mourhful, leaving to our allmentary manners, armed with pikes and knives, that of predariUl1.

is a utensil that never pierces, cuts, or slits, never wounds but only selects, turns, shifts.

this is seen eleady in the cook's long chop­ sticks, which serve not for eating but for preparing foodsruffs: the instrument never pierces, cuts, or slits, never wounds bllt anly seleers, rums, shifts.

is a utensil which tirelessly performs the gesture that creates the mouthful.

they tirelessly perform thc gesrurf~ which crcates the mouthful, leaving to our allmentary manners, armed with pikes and knives, that of predariUl1.

is a utensil which, by way of contrast, reveals Western manners as that of predation, an activity we come to armed with pikes and knives.

is a utensil whose function is to divide, to divide not by violating the foodstuff through cutting and piercing, but by separating, parting, pecking, unraveling, prodding in a manner that rediscovers the natural fisures of the substance.

For the chopsticks (third function), in order to dividc, must separate, part, peck, instead of (lltting and piercing, in the manner of our implements; thcy never violate the foodsruff: cither rhey gradually unravel it (in thc case of vegetables) or else prod ir into separate piecc.': (in the case of fish, eels), thercby reJiseovering the narural fisures of the substance (in this, much eloser to the primitive finger than to the knife).

chopsticks, n.Trivia

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