| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: Singapore, but put off his departure from year to year, always
expecting some favourable turn of fortune. He did not want to
meet her with empty hands and with no words of hope on his lips.
He could not take her back into that savage life to which he was
condemned himself. He was also a little afraid of her. What
would she think of him? He reckoned the years. A grown woman.
A civilised woman, young and hopeful; while he felt old and
hopeless, and very much like those savages round him. He asked
himself what was going to be her future. He could not answer
that question yet, and he dared not face her. And yet he longed
after her. He hesitated for years.
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: the faces of all their neighbours who are too familiar with them.
Such are books with metal clasps and rivets on their edges;
and such, again, are those abominable old rascals, chiefly born
in the fifteenth century, who are proud of being dressed in REAL
boards with brass corners, and pass their lives with fearful knobs and
metal bosses, mostly five in number, firmly fixed on one of their sides.
If the tendencies of such ruffians are not curbed, they will do
as much mischief to their gentle neighbours as when a "collie"
worries the sheep. These evil results may always be minimized
by placing a piece of millboard between the culprit and his victim.
I have seen lovely bindings sadly marked by such uncanny neighbours.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: fortnight's time, yet combining in its puny little body the
blood of the Hebrew, the Pole, and the Spaniard.
But the birth of this child had peculiar consequences.
Maria came out of her dementia, and in a few days the
household settled itself again to its sordid regime and
Maria went about her duties as usual. Then one evening,
about a week after the child's burial, Zerkow had asked
Maria to tell him the story of the famous service of gold
plate for the hundredth time.
Zerkow had come to believe in this story infallibly. He was
immovably persuaded that at one time Maria or Maria's people
McTeague |
