| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: all these two years filled with projects and designs how, if it
were possible, I might get away from this island: for sometimes I
was for making another voyage to the wreck, though my reason told
me that there was nothing left there worth the hazard of my voyage;
sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes another - and I believe
verily, if I had had the boat that I went from Sallee in, I should
have ventured to sea, bound anywhere, I knew not whither. I have
been, in all my circumstances, a memento to those who are touched
with the general plague of mankind, whence, for aught I know, one
half of their miseries flow: I mean that of not being satisfied
with the station wherein God and Nature hath placed them - for, not
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: He doesn't like to go to bed."
"Let us hope she will persuade him," observed Winterbourne.
"She will talk to him all she can; but he doesn't like her to talk
to him," said Miss Daisy, opening her fan. "She's going to try
to get Eugenio to talk to him. But he isn't afraid of Eugenio.
Eugenio's a splendid courier, but he can't make much impression
on Randolph! I don't believe he'll go to bed before eleven."
It appeared that Randolph's vigil was in fact triumphantly prolonged,
for Winterbourne strolled about with the young girl for some
time without meeting her mother. "I have been looking round
for that lady you want to introduce me to," his companion resumed.
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: Hotel de la Baudraye, she awaited Lousteau, dressed ready to leave the
house. When the deposed king of her heart came into dinner, she said:
"I have upset the pot, my dear. Madame de la Baudraye requests the
pleasure of your company at the /Rocher de Cancale/."
She carried off Lousteau, quite bewildered by the light and easy
manners assumed by the woman who till that morning has been the slave
of his least whim, for she too had been acting a farce for two months
past.
"Madame de la Baudraye is figged out as if for a first night," said he
--/une premiere/, the slang abbreviation for a first performance.
"Do not forget the respect you owe to Madame de la Baudraye," said
The Muse of the Department |
