| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: one of the most accomplished of the younger generation of American dramatists.
Of this play the ~Boston Transcript~ said, "It is an effective presentation
of modern life in New York City, in which a poet shows
his skill of playwrighting . . . he brings to the American drama to-day
a thing it sadly lacks, and that is character." In manner and technique
Mr. Robinson's new play, "The Porcupine", recalls some of the work of Ibsen.
Written adroitly and with the literary cleverness exhibited in "Van Zorn",
it tells a story of a domestic entanglement in a dramatic fashion
well calculated to hold the reader's attention.
"Contains all of the qualities that are said to be conspicuously lacking
in American Drama." -- ~N. Y. Evening Sun~.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: his dissimulation. Without violating the character of Socrates, Plato, who
knows so well how to give a hint, or some one writing in his name,
intimates clearly enough that the speech in the Menexenus like that in the
Phaedrus is to be attributed to Socrates. The address of the dead to the
living at the end of the oration may also be compared to the numerous
addresses of the same kind which occur in Plato, in whom the dramatic
element is always tending to prevail over the rhetorical. The remark has
been often made, that in the Funeral Oration of Thucydides there is no
allusion to the existence of the dead. But in the Menexenus a future state
is clearly, although not strongly, asserted.
Whether the Menexenus is a genuine writing of Plato, or an imitation only,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: Cardegee, with the sailor's love for a sailor's joke, had
determined, when he pulled into the cabin, to bring its inmate
down a peg or so. That he had succeeded beyond expectation he
could not help but remark, though he was in the dark as to the
part the gash on his cheek had played in it. But while he could
not understand, he saw the terror it created, and resolved to
exploit it as remorselessly as would any modern trader a choice
bit of merchandise.
"Strike me blind, but you're a 'ustler," he said admiringly, his
head cocked to one side, as his host bustled about. "You never
'ort to 'ave gone Klondiking. It's the keeper of a pub' you was
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