| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: itself up; the space would fill; those empty flourishes would form into
shape; if they shouted loud enough Mrs Ramsay would return. "Mrs
Ramsay!" she said aloud, "Mrs Ramsay!" The tears ran down her face.
6
[Macalister's boy took one of the fish and cut a square out of its side
to bait his hook with. The mutilated body (it was alive still) was
thrown back into the sea.]
7
"Mrs Ramsay!" Lily cried, "Mrs Ramsay!" But nothing happened. The pain
increased. That anguish could reduce one to such a pitch of
imbecility, she thought! Anyhow the old man had not heard her. He
To the Lighthouse |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: to assure the success of a book or a play. They are capable of
doing harm, but not of doing a service. The papers are so
conscious of the uselessness of everything in the shape of
criticism or personal opinion, that they have reached the point
of suppressing literary criticism, confining themselves to citing
the title of a book, and appending a "puff" of two or three
lines.[22] In twenty years' time the same fate will probably
have overtaken theatrical criticism.
[22] These remarks refer to the French newspaper press.--Note of
the Translator.
The close watching of the course of opinion has become to-day the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: old stale proverbs of the stale old world was to have another
justification. I repeat that I was astounded, taken completely by
surprise; and yet I had known something of "the fury of a woman
scorned."
It was as though our eyes shot out to meet each other in an
embrace of death. She saw that I understood and she smiled--what
a smile! It was triumphant, and yet sad; a vengeance, and a
farewell. She put forth her hand.
It wavered among the quipos as though uncertainly, then
closed firmly on the black cord of death.
A thought flashed through my mind with the speed of lightning.
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