| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: was sent from one wicket to another; was bewildered,
confused; misunderstood directions; was at one moment
suddenly convinced that he had not enough money with him,
and started to return home. Finally he found himself at the
box-office wicket.
"Is it here you buy your seats?"
"How many?"
"Is it here--"
"What night do you want 'em? Yes, sir, here's the place."
McTeague gravely delivered himself of the formula he had
been reciting for the last dozen hours.
McTeague |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: Constance's face, "I read the first words of this letter of du Tillet.
The words coincide in a singular manner with the power you have just
shown in forcing that man to accept my absurd exactions; any man would
explain it as the devil explains it to me, in spite of myself. Your
look--three words suffice--"
"Stop!" said Madame Cesar, taking the letter and burning it. "My son,
I am severely punished for a trifling error. You shall know all,
Anselme. I shall not allow a suspicion inspired by her mother to
injure my daughter; and besides, I can speak without blushing. What I
now tell you, I could tell my husband. Du Tillet wished to seduce me;
I informed my husband of it, and du Tillet was to have been dismissed.
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: "Yes, sir," said Petrovitch, "for any kind of cloak. If you have a
marten fur on the collar, or a silk-lined hood, it will mount up to
two hundred."
"Petrovitch, please," said Akakiy Akakievitch in a beseeching tone,
not hearing, and not trying to hear, Petrovitch's words, and
disregarding all his "effects," "some repairs, in order that it may
wear yet a little longer."
"No, it would only be a waste of time and money," said Petrovitch; and
Akakiy Akakievitch went away after these words, utterly discouraged.
But Petrovitch stood for some time after his departure, with
significantly compressed lips, and without betaking himself to his
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
