Today's Stichomancy for Moby

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum:

8. How the Grand Gallipoot Joined The Nomes

After leaving the Whimsies, Guph continued on his journey and penetrated far into the Northwest. He wanted to get to the Country of the Growleywogs, and in order to do that he must cross the Ripple Land, which was a hard thing to do. For the Ripple Land was a succession of hills and valleys, all very steep and rocky, and they changed places constantly by rippling. While Guph was climbing a hill it sank down under him and became a valley, and while he was descending into a valley it rose up and carried him to the top of a hill. This was very perplexing to the traveler, and a stranger might have thought he could never cross the Ripple Land at all. But Guph

The Emerald City of Oz

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving:

with him.

CHAPTER XXXVI. Mr. Hunt Overtakes the Advance Party.- Pierre Dorion, and His Skeleton Horse.- A Shoshonie Camp.- A Justifiable Outrage.- Feasting on Horse Flesh.- Mr. Crooks Brought to the Camp.- Undertakes to Relieve His Men.- The Skin Ferry-Boat.- Frenzy of Prevost.- His Melancholy Fate.-Enfeebled State of John Day.-Mr. Crooks Again Left Behind.-The Party Emerge From Among the Mountains.-Interview With Shoshonies.-A Guide Procured to Conduct the Party Across a Mountain. -Ferriage Across Snake River.-

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad:

Being hungry, you know, and kept on my feet too. I was getting savage. `How can I tell?' I said. `I haven't even seen the wreck yet-- some months, no doubt.' All this talk seemed to me so futile. `Some months,' he said. `Well, let us say three months before we can make a start. Yes. That ought to do the affair.' I flung out of his hut (he lived all alone in a clay hut with a sort of verandah) muttering to myself my opinion of him. He was a chattering idiot. Afterwards I took it back when it was borne in upon me startlingly with what extreme nicety he had estimated the time requisite for the `affair.'

"I went to work the next day, turning, so to speak, my back

Heart of Darkness

The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler:

though it were with another. But to know she is unhappy!--I must drive these thoughts from me. Charlotte has some books; and this is what I believe she calls her little library. [Enters a closet.

Enter DIMPLE leading LETITIA.

LETITIA

And will you pretend to say now, Mr. Dimple, that you propose to break with Maria? Are not the banns published? Are not the clothes purchased? Are not the friends invited? In short, is it not a done affair?

DIMPLE