| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: departure with his brig, and, above all, the mysterious
appearance of the body, said to be his, amongst the logs, were
subjects to wonder at and to talk over and over again with
undiminished interest. Mahmat moved from house to house and from
group to group, always ready to repeat his tale: how he saw the
body caught by the sarong in a forked log; how Mrs. Almayer
coming, one of the first, at his cries, recognised it, even
before he had it hauled on shore; how Babalatchi ordered him to
bring it out of the water. "By the feet I dragged him in, and
there was no head," exclaimed Mahmat, "and how could the white
man's wife know who it was? She was a witch, it was well known.
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: along a crop of human beings, who are, more often than not, reaped by
death, only to be born again as pinched as ever, men whose twisted and
contorted faces give out at every pore the instinct, the desire, the
poisons with which their brains are pregnant; not faces so much as
masks; masks of weakness, masks of strength, masks of misery, masks of
joy, masks of hypocrisy; all alike worn and stamped with the indelible
signs of a panting cupidity? What is it they want? Gold or pleasure? A
few observations upon the soul of Paris may explain the causes of its
cadaverous physiognomy, which has but two ages--youth and decay:
youth, wan and colorless; decay, painted to seem young. In looking at
this excavated people, foreigners, who are not prone to reflection,
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: now he saw were desperate appeals to his understanding. He had
known his desert. He had never known hers.
With an exclamation Buck Johnson turned abruptly back to the
arroyo. Button followed him, mildly curious, certain that his
master's reappearance meant a summons for himself.
Down the miniature cliff the man slid, confidently, without
hesitation, sure of himself. His shoulders held squarely, his
step elastic, his eye bright, he walked to the fearful, shapeless
bundle now lying motionless on the flat surface of the alkali.
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