| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The War in the Air by H. G. Wells: to the hills, and directly the steamer came to the harbour she
was boarded and her residue of food impounded by some
unauthenticated Provisional Committee. Bert tramped through a
country disorganised by pestilence, foodless, and shaken to the
very base of its immemorial order. He came near death and
starvation many times, and once he was drawn into scenes of
violence that might have ended his career. But the Bert
Smallways who tramped from Cardiff to London vaguely "going
home," vaguely seeking something of his own that had no tangible
form but Edna, was a very different person from the Desert
Dervish who was swept out of England in Mr. Butteridge's balloon
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: long arms and quite apish features. They were not pretty to
look upon with their close-set eyes, flat noses, long upper
lips and protruding yellow fangs.
"Alus!" said the girl.
I had reread Bowen's adventures so often that I knew them
almost by heart, and so now I knew that I was looking upon the
last remnant of that ancient man-race--the Alus of a forgotten
period--the speechless man of antiquity.
"Kazor!" cried the girl, and at the same moment the Alus
came jabbering toward us. They made strange growling, barking
noises, as with much baring of fangs they advanced upon us.
The People That Time Forgot |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: one couldn't help having a sneaking liking for the traditions
of the old faith, as preserved by a section of the thinkers there
in touching and simple sincerity; but when I was in my saddest,
rightest mind I always felt,
'O ghastly glories of saints, dead limbs of
gibbeted Gods!'"...
"Sue, you are not a good friend of mine to talk like that!"
"Then I won't, dear Jude!" The emotional throat-note had come back,
and she turned her face away.
"I still think Christminster has much that is glorious;
though I was resentful because I couldn't get there."
Jude the Obscure |
