Fake Fragments, Fake Ruins, and Genuine Paper Ruination

Abstract

Thinking of fragments in material terms, there is an intuition that it is hard, if not impossible, to produce a fragment directly — one can merely arrange for an event to take place such that at its completion the affected object will turn to fragments. Take, for instance, a typical species of fragment, splinters. We know that they will be irregular, sharp-edged, perhaps jagged, but we cannot really craft them in the manner a regular artifact is produced. Although it is unproblematic to manufacture a glass plate two inches long, three inches wide, and half an inch thick, it seems impossible to produce a glass splinter of precise dimensions. If need be, of course, we could attempt to break a pane in a controlled way, for instance, by breaking glass in special matrices that would impose certain shapes, or we might engrave lines of desired fractures into glass before breakage, but in the end the splinters will always have a random quality. Thus randomness, besides the presence of force, is an inherent constituent of fragmentation. At the same time, not all random events result in fragmentation; neither do all violent events. It is doubtful whether we should view a random selection of a book from a shelf, or a number from a set — for instance, through a throw of dice — as a case of fragmentation. Moreover, material quality plays a role. While we may all agree that an explosion in the air creates waves of air, it is quite unusual to think that it creates air fragments.