| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: night--lighted up from top to bottom as at a time of public gaiety
and joy. Many years afterwards, old people who lived in their
youth near this part of the city, remembered being in a great glare
of light, within doors and without, and as they looked, timid and
frightened children, from the windows, seeing a FACE go by. Though
the whole great crowd and all its other terrors had faded from
their recollection, this one object remained; alone, distinct, and
well remembered. Even in the unpractised minds of infants, one of
these doomed men darting past, and but an instant seen, was an
image of force enough to dim the whole concourse; to find itself an
all-absorbing place, and hold it ever after.
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: nothing until the Lady Anne, turning suddenly, said: "Come, coz,
has thou naught to say to our new-made knight? Canst thou not
also wish him joy of his knighthood?"
Lady Alice hesitated a minute, then gave Myles a timid hand,
which he, with a strange mixture of joy and confusion, took as
timidly as it was offered. He raised the hand, and set it lightly
and for an instant to his lips, as he had done with the Lady
Anne's hand, but with very different emotions.
"I give you joy of your knighthood, sir," said Lady Alice, in a
voice so low that Myles could hardly hear it.
Both flushed red, and as he raised his head again, Myles saw that
Men of Iron |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: older than that. He had seen it lying in the window of a frowsy little
junk-shop in a slummy quarter of the town (just what quarter he did not
now remember) and had been stricken immediately by an overwhelming desire
to possess it. Party members were supposed not to go into ordinary shops
('dealing on the free market', it was called), but the rule was not
strictly kept, because there were various things, such as shoelaces and
razor blades, which it was impossible to get hold of in any other way. He
had given a quick glance up and down the street and then had slipped inside
and bought the book for two dollars fifty. At the time he was not conscious
of wanting it for any particular purpose. He had carried it guiltily home
in his briefcase. Even with nothing written in it, it was a compromising
1984 |
