| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: that we had amongst us the only living soul that
had escaped from that disaster. The man himself,
even when he learned to speak intelligibly, could
tell us very little. He remembered he had felt bet-
ter (after the ship had anchored, I suppose), and
that the darkness, the wind, and the rain took his
breath away. This looks as if he had been on deck
some time during that night. But we mustn't forget
he had been taken out of his knowledge, that he
had been sea-sick and battened down below for four
days, that he had no general notion of a ship or of
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: the little bite previously administered to the silk-swathed
captive. Does the Spider kill the patient with a view to avoiding
unseasonable jerks, protests so disagreeable at dinner-time?
Several reasons make me doubt it. In the first place, the attack
is so much veiled as to have all the appearance of a mere kiss.
Besides, it is made anywhere, at the first spot that offers. The
expert slayers {33} employ methods of the highest precision: they
give a stab in the neck, or under the throat; they wound the
cervical nerve-centres, the seat of energy. The paralyzers, those
accomplished anatomists, poison the motor nerve-centres, of which
they know the number and position. The Epeira possesses none of
The Life of the Spider |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: if the fastenings of the garment were tried to the utmost. From
the head, set upward on a thick neck, the eyes, with puffy lower
lids, stared with a haughty droop on each side of a hooked
aggressive nose, nobly salient in the vast pale circumference of
the face. A shiny silk hat and a pair of worn gloves lying ready
on the end of a long table looked expanded too, enormous.
He stood on the hearthrug in big, roomy boots, and uttered no word
of greeting.
"I would like to know if this is the beginning of another dynamite
campaign," he asked at once in a deep, very smooth voice. "Don't
go into details. I have no time for that."
The Secret Agent |
