| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: into such a masculine privacy as the butties' reckoning, nor were they
to know the exact amount of the week's earnings. So, whilst her
father was spluttering in the scullery, Annie went out to spend
an hour with a neighbour. Mrs. Morel attended to her baking.
"Shut that doo-er!" bawled Morel furiously.
Annie banged it behind her, and was gone.
"If tha oppens it again while I'm weshin' me, I'll ma'e thy
jaw rattle," he threatened from the midst of his soap-suds. Paul
and the mother frowned to hear him.
Presently he came running out of the scullery, with the soapy
water dripping from him, dithering with cold.
Sons and Lovers |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: figures kneeling on the floor, and as I entered they all bent
forward and touched their head to the ground, giving forth as
they did it a low, wailing chant.
Not knowing their customs I went up and stooped over, speaking
first to the Princess and then to the ladies as best I could. I
afterwards watched the other lady visitors and saw that they put
their right hand up near their head as our soldiers salute, and
courtesied to the Princess, her daughter-in-law and her eldest
daughter. They then went over to a little table on which was a
silver sacrificial set, consisting of a wine tankard, a great
bowl, and a number of tiny cups holding but two tablespoonfuls.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: mediocrities; provincial fathers marry their daughters to provincial
sons; crossing the races is never thought of, and the brain inevitably
degenerates, so that in many country towns intellect is as rare as the
breed is hideous. Mankind becomes dwarfed in mind and body, for the
fatal principle of conformity of fortune governs every matrimonial
alliance. Men of talent, artists, superior brains--every bird of
brilliant plumage flies to Paris. The provincial woman, inferior in
herself, is also inferior through her husband. How is she to live
happy under this crushing twofold consciousness?
But there is a third and terrible element besides her congenital and
conjugal inferiority which contributes to make the figure arid and
The Muse of the Department |
