| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: woodland and thickety retreats. . . . Its notes are not remarkable
for variety or volume, but in purity and sweetness of tone and
exquisite modulation they are unequalled.' Its 'water-dripping song'
is justly celebrated.
360. The following lines were stimulated by the account of one
of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one
of Shackleton's): it was related that the party of explorers,
at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion
that there was _one more member_ than could actually be counted.
366-76. Cf. Hermann Hesse, _Blick ins Chaos_:
Schon ist halb Europa, schon ist zumindest der halbe Osten Europas auf dem
The Waste Land |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: He is very lazy, but a great reader, especially of cheap novels.
Among the troubles with this boy is his extremely filthy talk.
He has even lost one position on account of this. An aunt caught
the boy in bad sex practices several years ago and told the
mother. Neighbors, and earlier the school people, warned the
mother that this was what was the matter with the boy. About a
year ago John was found in a room with a man and other boys
engaged in bad practices. The man was sentenced to a long term
in the penitentiary on account of it.
Worst of all, the mother says the boy is the most malicious liar
she has ever heard of. They have had a frightful time with him
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: a by-word."
"Take care, Basil. You go too far."
"I must speak, and you must listen. You shall listen.
When you met Lady Gwendolen, not a breath of scandal had ever
touched her. Is there a single decent woman in London now
who would drive with her in the park? Why, even her children
are not allowed to live with her. Then there are other stories--
stories that you have been seen creeping at dawn out of dreadful
houses and slinking in disguise into the foulest dens in London.
Are they true? Can they be true? When I first heard them,
I laughed. I hear them now, and they make me shudder.
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
