| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: boots for the quarter at 145 million pairs. The actual output was given as
sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked
the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as to allow for the usual claim
that the quota had been overfulfilled. In any case, sixty-two millions was
no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than 145 millions. Very
likely no boots had been produced at all. Likelier still, nobody knew
how many had been produced, much less cared. All one knew was that every
quarter astronomical numbers of boots were produced on paper, while perhaps
half the population of Oceania went barefoot. And so it was with every
class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a
shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become
1984 |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: countess took my arm and leaned upon it, as if to let my heart feel
the weight of hers,--the instinctive movement of a mother who seeks to
convey her joy. Then she whispered in my ear, "You bring us
happiness."
Ah, to me, who knew her sleepless nights, her cares, her fears, her
former existence, in which, although the hand of God sustained her,
all was barren and wearisome, those words uttered by that rich voice
brought pleasures no other woman in the world could give me.
"The terrible monotony of my life is broken, all things are radiant
with hope," she said after a pause. "Oh, never leave me! Do not
despise my harmless superstitions; be the elder son, the protector of
The Lily of the Valley |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: for John C. Calhoun and the whole fair sunny
South!" added the trader. So off went their hats,
and out burst a terrific roar of irregular but con-
tinued cheering. My master took no more notice
of the dealer. He merely said to the captain that
the air on deck was too keen for him, and he would
therefore return to the cabin.
While the trader was in the zenith of his elo-
quence, he might as well have said, as one of his
kit did, at a great Filibustering meeting, that
"When the great American Eagle gets one of his
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
