| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: kindliness in the fading dusk. "A light-weight is an eternal
nay."
"There's so much spring in the airthere's so much lazy sweetness
in your heart."
She dropped his arm.
"You're all fine now, and I feel glorious. Give me a cigarette.
You've never seen me smoke, have you? Well, I do, about once a
month."
And then that wonderful girl and Amory raced to the corner like
two mad children gone wild with pale-blue twilight.
"I'm going to the country for to-morrow," she announced, as she
This Side of Paradise |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: had distracted him. And now he became conscious of a new
disturbance. Striking through the thought of his dear
ones was sound which he could neither ignore nor understand,
a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a
blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing
quality. He wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably
distant or near by -- it seemed both. Its recurrence was
regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He
awaited each new stroke with impatience and -- he knew not
why -- apprehension. The intervals of silence grew
progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: received was not wages but an advance out of his future share in
the profits.
It is true that Fyodor Ryezunov's company did not plough over the
ground twice before sowing, as had been agreed, justifying
themselves on the plea that the time was too short. It is true
that the peasants of the same company, though they had agreed to
work the land on new conditions, always spoke of the land, not as
held in partnership, but as rented for half the crop, and more
than once the peasants and Ryezunov himself said to Levin, "If
you would take a rent for the land, it would save you trouble,
and we should be more free." Moreover the same peasants kept
Anna Karenina |
