| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: lucidity; she is in fine, to tear off her mask, the most
unmitigated and abandoned of ficelles. Half the dramatist's art,
as we well know--since if we don't it's not the fault of the
proofs that lie scattered about us--is in the use of ficelles; by
which I mean in a deep dissimulation of his dependence on them.
Waymarsh only to a slighter degree belongs, in the whole business,
less to my subject than to my treatment of it; the interesting
proof, in these connexions, being that one has but to take one's
subject for the stuff of drama to interweave with enthusiasm as
many Gostreys as need be.
The material of "The Ambassadors," conforming in this respect
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Koran: both liars, and we strengthened them with a third; and they said,
'Verily, we are sent to you.'
They said, 'Ye are only mortals like ourselves, nor has the Merciful
sent down aught; ye are naught but liars.'
They said, 'Our Lord knows that we are sent to you, and we have only
our plain message to preach.'
They said, 'Verily, we have augured concerning you, and if ye do not
desist we will surely stone you, and there shall touch you from us a
grievous woe.'
Said they, 'Your augury is with you; what! if ye are reminded-? Nay,
ye are an extravagant people!'
The Koran |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: to be there now we dared not conjecture. Mr. Eltham joined us,
uttered one short, dry sob, and dropped upon his knees.
Then we were carrying Denby back to the house, with the mastiff
howling a marche funebre.
We laid him on the grass where it sloped down from the terrace.
Nayland Smith's haggard face was terrible. But the stark horror of
the thing inspired him to that, which conceived earlier, had saved Denby.
Twisting suddenly to Eltham, he roared in a voice audible beyond the river:
"Heavens! we are fools! LOOSE THE DOG!"
"But the dog--" I began.
Smith clapped his hand over my mouth.
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
