| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: trigger. Fortune did not whirl, but gay San Francisco dimmed and
faded, and as the sun-bright snow turned black and blacker, he
breathed his last malediction on the Chance he had misplayed.
SIWASH
"If I was a man--" Her words were in themselves indecisive, but
the withering contempt which flashed from her black eyes was not
lost upon the men-folk in the tent.
Tommy, the English sailor, squirmed, but chivalrous old Dick
Humphries, Cornish fisherman and erstwhile American salmon
capitalist, beamed upon her benevolently as ever. He bore women
too large a portion of his rough heart to mind them, as he said,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: short round, passed again through the small doorway. The white man,
dropping his bundles, followed.
In the dim light of the dwelling he made out on a couch of bamboos a
woman stretched on her back under a broad sheet of red cotton cloth.
She lay still, as if dead; but her big eyes, wide open, glittered in
the gloom, staring upwards at the slender rafters, motionless and
unseeing. She was in a high fever, and evidently unconscious. Her
cheeks were sunk slightly, her lips were partly open, and on the young
face there was the ominous and fixed expression--the absorbed,
contemplating expression of the unconscious who are going to die. The
two men stood looking down at her in silence.
Tales of Unrest |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: Mrs Ramsay.
She supposed it was all right leaving him to his own devices, Mrs
Ramsay said, wondering whether it was any use sending down bulbs; did
they plant them? "Oh, he has his dissertation to write," said Mr
Ramsay. She knew all about THAT, said Mrs Ramsay. He talked of
nothing else. It was about the influence of somebody upon something.
"Well, it's all he has to count on," said Mr Ramsay. "Pray Heaven he
won't fall in love with Prue," said Mrs Ramsay. He'd disinherit her if
she married him, said Mr Ramsay. He did not look at the spot about a
foot or so above them. There was no harm in him, he added, and was
just about to say that anyhow he was the only young man in England who
To the Lighthouse |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: Hare moved away silently; the shock of Snap's first words had kept him
fast in his tracks long enough to hear the conversation. Why did Snap
threaten him? Where was August Naab going to send him? Hare had no
means of coming to an understanding of either question. He was disturbed
in mind and resolved to keep out of Snap's way. He went to the orchard,
but his stay of an hour availed nothing, for on his return, after
threading the maze of cottonwoods, he came face to face with the man he
wanted to avoid.
Snap Naab, at the moment of meeting, had a black bottle tipped high above
his lips.
With a curse he threw the bottle at Hare, missing him narrowly. He was
The Heritage of the Desert |
