Mr Bennet to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice:
"You are not going to be missish, I hope, and pretend to be affronted at an idle report. For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
"You are not going to be missish, I hope, and pretend to be affronted at an idle report. For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
weapons of mass antisocial behaviorsI am presently being bothered by the she-homo-laptopian seated at my left.
I was quietly reading about Determinism in History on the internet and listening to Mozart (the very relaxing clarinet concerto) when this student arrived. All of a sudden all I could hear was the combination of her frantic typing and of the erratic rhythm of her open-mouthed chewing. The typing isn't so bad, but the chewing is so high-pitched that I had to switch from Mozart to swing, and considerably raise the volume of my headphones.
"Universal -chew- determin-chew-ism depends on a -chew-concept of cau-chew-sation that was -chew- not -chew chew-generally adopted -chew-until after the seven-chew-teenth-century-chew- “scientific rev-chew chew-olution.”"
I thought maybe she has to finish some paper and is stressed out about it. But no, she is actually chatting on the internet. I know it's bad to look at what others are doing, but she was the one invading my personal space in the first place.
So now I'm posting this misanthropic message while listening to a rather loud Sinatra. (And as I'm typing this, another student is taking place at my right, with a huge book entitled Molière. Now this one I like!)
I know, I'm proud and prejudiced...
I was quietly reading about Determinism in History on the internet and listening to Mozart (the very relaxing clarinet concerto) when this student arrived. All of a sudden all I could hear was the combination of her frantic typing and of the erratic rhythm of her open-mouthed chewing. The typing isn't so bad, but the chewing is so high-pitched that I had to switch from Mozart to swing, and considerably raise the volume of my headphones.
"Universal -chew- determin-chew-ism depends on a -chew-concept of cau-chew-sation that was -chew- not -chew chew-generally adopted -chew-until after the seven-chew-teenth-century-chew- “scientific rev-chew chew-olution.”"
I thought maybe she has to finish some paper and is stressed out about it. But no, she is actually chatting on the internet. I know it's bad to look at what others are doing, but she was the one invading my personal space in the first place.
So now I'm posting this misanthropic message while listening to a rather loud Sinatra. (And as I'm typing this, another student is taking place at my right, with a huge book entitled Molière. Now this one I like!)
I know, I'm proud and prejudiced...
2 comments:
While I don't approve of students being mind-bogglingly annoying in public spaces, I do find it interesting that you describe her as invading your personal space.
While I could go on about how we've been shutting ourselves off more and more lately from the world around us, I don't necessarily think it works that way. Instead, I find it interesting that when we become involved in certain activities we suddenly create a personal space around us without necessarily realising it. Your sentence of "Universal -chew- determin-chew-ism depends on a -chew-concept of cau-chew-sation that was -chew- ..." shows exactly how we create a small world that contains only us and the book when we're reading. Whenever something other than us or the book enters our realm, as the chews do, we suddenly feel as if our personal space has been invaded. If the same thing were to happen while we were standing around waiting for the bus, on the other hand, I'm sure that the noise would wash right over us without notice. This seems to transfer over to other activities like using the Internet and listening to music.
The thing that I actually find the most annoying is when people are chatting over the Internet or playing games on the public computers in the library while I'm trying to access the catalogue. It's just so frustrating!
even though you are complaining about something in your writing,i find it humourous. so when i come to these lines ‘and as I'm typing this, another student is taking place at my right, with a huge book entitled Molière. now this one I like!’,I start to chortle,haha:)
maybe a set of in-ear headphones will solve your problem. this is what I always do.
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