| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: interlaced above their heads, dark silent houses loomed up on
either side and the white palings of fences gleamed faintly like a
row of tombstones. The narrow street was a dim tunnel, but faintly
through the thick leafy ceiling the hideous red glow of the sky
penetrated and shadows chased one another down the dark way like
mad ghosts. The smell of smoke came stronger and stronger, and on
the wings of the hot breeze came a pandemonium of sound from the
center of town, yells, the dull rumbling of heavy army wagons and
the steady tramp of marching feet. As Rhett jerked the horse's
head and turned him into another street, another deafening
explosion tore the air and a monstrous skyrocket of flame and smoke
Gone With the Wind |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: Herostratic* event of 1801 still floated vividly, agreed entirely with the
others in abusing the rascally English. With other topics he was not so
fortunate; every moment brought about some new confusion, and threatened to
become a perfect Babel; for the worthy Bachelor was really too ignorant, and
the simplest observations of the Councillor sounded to him too daring and
phantastical. They looked at one another from the crown of the head to the
soles of the feet; and when matters grew to too high a pitch, then the
Bachelor talked Latin, in the hope of being better understood--but it was of
no use after all.
* Herostratus, or Eratostratus--an Ephesian, who wantonly set fire to the
famous temple of Diana, in order to commemorate his name by so uncommon an
Fairy Tales |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: physiological effect, nay, even from its cumbrous and comical
shape, stands alone among the instruments of noise. And if it be
true, as I have heard it said, that drums are covered with asses'
skin, what a picturesque irony is there in that! As if this long-
suffering animal's hide had not been sufficiently belaboured during
life, now by Lyonnese costermongers, now by presumptuous Hebrew
prophets, it must be stripped from his poor hinder quarters after
death, stretched on a drum, and beaten night after night round the
streets of every garrison town in Europe. And up the heights of
Alma and Spicheren, and wherever death has his red flag a-flying,
and sounds his own potent tuck upon the cannons, there also must
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