| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: at the nature of the delights to which the mere approaches were so
paved with shillings. She quivered on occasion into the perception
of this and that one whom she would on the chance have just simply
liked to BE. Her conceit, her baffled vanity, was possibly
monstrous; she certainly often threw herself into a defiant
conviction that she would have done the whole thing much better.
But her greatest comfort, mostly, was her comparative vision of the
men; by whom I mean the unmistakeable gentlemen, for she had no
interest in the spurious or the shabby and no mercy at all for the
poor. She could have found a sixpence, outside, for an appearance
of want; but her fancy, in some directions so alert, had never a
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: Monsieur de Clagny's great satisfaction, the new Sous-prefet was a
married man whose wife made friends with Dinah. The lawyer had now no
rival to fear but Monsieur Gravier. Now Monsieur Gravier was the
typical man of forty of whom women make use while they laugh at him,
whose hopes they intentionally and remorselessly encourage, as we are
kind to a beast of burden. In six years, among all the men who were
introduced to her from twenty leagues round, there was not one in
whose presence Dinah was conscious of the excitement caused by
personal beauty, by a belief in promised happiness, by the impact of a
superior soul, or the anticipation of a love affair, even an unhappy
one.
The Muse of the Department |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling: We dropped her -- I think I told you -- and I pricked it off where she sank --
['Tiny she looked on the grating -- that oily, treacly sea --]
'Hundred and eighteen East, remember, and South just three.
Easy bearings to carry -- three South -- three to the dot;
But I gave M'Andrew a copy in case of dying -- or not.
And so you'll write to M'Andrew, he's Chief of the Maori Line;
They'll give him leave, if you ask 'em and say it's business o' mine.
I built three boats for the Maoris, an' very well pleased they were,
An' I've known Mac since the Fifties, and Mac knew me -- and her.
After the first stroke warned me I sent him the money to keep
Against the time you'd claim it, committin' your dad to the deep;
Verses 1889-1896 |
