| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: at such an incomprehensible order, as to repeat:
"Open the quarter-deck ports! What for, sir?"
"The only reason you need concern yourself about is because I tell you
to do so. Have them open wide and fastened properly."
He reddened and went off, but I believe made some jeering remark
to the carpenter as to the sensible practice of ventilating
a ship's quarter-deck. I know he popped into the mate's cabin
to impart the fact to him because the whiskers came on deck,
as it were by chance, and stole glances at me from below--
for signs of lunacy or drunkenness, I suppose.
A little before supper, feeling more restless than ever, I rejoined,
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: distances from a lofty height--and following with his eyes his own
figure wandering on the blank land of Cochin-China, and then passing
off that piece of paper clean out of sight into uncharted regions.
And it was as if the ship had two captains to plan her course for her.
I had been so worried and restless running up and down that I
had not had the patience to dress that day. I had remained
in my sleeping suit, with straw slippers and a soft floppy hat.
The closeness of the heat in the gulf had been most oppressive,
and the crew were used to seeing me wandering in that airy attire.
"She will clear the south point as she heads now," I whispered into his ear.
"Goodness only knows when, though, but certainly after dark.
The Secret Sharer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: against itself. The fugitive from Poland, the fugitive from the Tatar
and the Turk, homeless, with nothing to lose, their lives ever exposed
to danger, forsook their peaceful occupations and became transformed
into a warlike people, known as the Cossacks, whose appearance towards
the end of the thirteenth century or at the beginning of the
fourteenth was a remarkable event which possibly alone (suggests
Gogol) prevented any further inroads by the two Mohammedan nations
into Europe. The appearance of the Cossacks was coincident with the
appearance in Europe of brotherhoods and knighthood-orders, and this
new race, in spite of its living the life of marauders, in spite of
turnings its foes' tactics upon its foes, was not free of the
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
