| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: for a time with that bight in the Spanish coast which would be
enclosed within a straight line drawn from Faro to Spartel. My
well-remembered experience has convinced me that, in that corner of
the ocean, once the wind has got to the northward of west (as it
did on the 20th, taking the British fleet aback), appearances of
westerly weather go for nothing, and that it is infinitely more
likely to veer right round to the east than to shift back again.
It was in those conditions that, at seven on the morning of the
21st, the signal for the fleet to bear up and steer east was made.
Holding a clear recollection of these languid easterly sighs
rippling unexpectedly against the run of the smooth swell, with no
The Mirror of the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: 'That place is uncanny, old fellow; they're
wicked people there!' . . . And, indeed, what
sort of a blind boy is that? He goes everywhere
alone, to fetch water and to buy bread at the
bazaar. It is evident they have become accus-
tomed to that sort of thing here."
"Well, what then? Tell me, though, has
the mistress of the place put in an appear-
ance?"
"During your absence to-day, an old woman
and her daughter arrived."
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: any conspiracy and without soldiers. Any guard might arrest him, but
by strange chance no one does so and all rapturously greet the man
they cursed the day before and will curse again a month later.
This man is still needed to justify the final collective act.
That act is performed.
The last role is played. The actor is bidden to disrobe and wash off
his powder and paint: he will not be wanted any more.
And some years pass during which he plays a pitiful comedy to
himself in solitude on his island, justifying his actions by intrigues
and lies when the justification is no longer needed, and displaying to
the whole world what it was that people had mistaken for strength as
War and Peace |
