| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: caught, not quite prepared, by a sudden shift of wind.
There was, of course, a good deal of noise - running about, the,
shouts of the sailors, the thrashing of the sails - enough, in
fact, to wake the dead. But S- never came on deck. When I was
relieved by the chief mate an hour afterwards, he sent for me. I
went into his stateroom; he was lying on his couch wrapped up in a
rug, with a pillow under his head.
"What was the matter with you up there just now?" he asked.
"Wind flew round on the lee quarter, sir," I said.
"Couldn't you see the shift coming?"
"Yes, sir, I thought it wasn't very far off."
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: Mr Verloc, after a grunt of disapproving surprise, returned to the
sofa. Alexander Ossipon got up, tall in his threadbare blue serge
suit under the low ceiling, shook off the stiffness of long
immobility, and strolled away into the kitchen (down two steps) to
look over Stevie's shoulder. He came back, pronouncing oracularly:
"Very good. Very characteristic, perfectly typical."
"What's very good?" grunted inquiringly Mr Verloc, settled again in
the corner of the sofa. The other explained his meaning
negligently, with a shade of condescension and a toss of his head
towards the kitchen:
"Typical of this form of degeneracy - these drawings, I mean."
The Secret Agent |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: "I admit," said he -- when I mentioned to him this objection --
"I admit the truth of your critic's facts, but I deny his conclusions.
It is true that we have really in Flatland a Third
unrecognized Dimension called 'height', just as it is also true
that you have really in Spaceland a Fourth unrecognized Dimension,
called by no name at present, but which I will call 'extra-height'.
But we can no more take cognizance of our 'height' than you can
of your 'extra-height'. Even I -- who have been in Spaceland,
and have had the privilege of understanding for twenty-four hours
the meaning of 'height' -- even I cannot now comprehend it,
nor realize it by the sense of sight or by any process of reason;
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
