| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: tiny pin-point of light, hardly visible far, far below us, where
both our graves lie. No doubt! But reflect, O complaining
Shade! that this was not so much my fault as your crowning
misfortune. I believed in you in the only way it was possible
for me to believe. It was not worthy of your merits? So be it.
But you were always an unlucky man, Almayer. Nothing was ever
quite worthy of you. What made you so real to me was that you
held this lofty theory with some force of conviction and with an
admirable consistency."
It is with some such words translated into the proper shadowy
expressions that I am prepared to placate Almayer in the Elysian
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: believe I would have shaken her. But there was no movement and
this immobility disarmed my anger.
"You do. Or you wouldn't be found on the verandah every day. Why
are you here, then? There are plenty of rooms in the house. You
have your own room to stay in - if you did not want to see me. But
you do. You know you do."
I felt a slight shudder under my hand and released my grip as if
frightened by that sign of animation in her body. The scented air
of the garden came to us in a warm wave like a voluptuous and
perfumed sigh.
"Go back to them," she whispered, almost pitifully.
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: raspberries, or anything you are going after--much better than if
we had the chaise."
Mrs. Todd looked stony and unwilling. "I counted upon the
chaise," she said, turning her back to me, and roughly pushing back
all the quiet tumblers on the cupboard shelf as if they had been
impertinent. "Yes, I desired the chaise for once. I ain't goin'
berryin' nor to fetch home no more wilted vegetation this year.
Season's about past, except for a poor few o' late things," she
added in a milder tone. "I'm goin' up country. No, I ain't
intendin' to go berryin'. I've been plottin' for it the past
fortnight and hopin' for a good day."
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