| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room.
The self-satisfied sheep-like face on the screen, and the terrifying power
of the Eurasian army behind it, were too much to be borne: besides,
the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger
automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than either Eurasia
or Eastasia, since when Oceania was at war with one of these Powers it was
generally at peace with the other. But what was strange was that although
Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a
thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers,
in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the
general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were--in spite of all this,
1984 |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: what on earth I should do when I caught sight of the play-bill.
What do you think the play was, Harry?"
"I should think The Idiot Boy, or Dumb but Innocent.
Our fathers used to like that sort of piece, I believe.
The longer I live, Dorian, the more keenly I feel that whatever
was good enough for our fathers is not good enough for us. In art,
as in politics, les grandperes ont toujours tort."
"This play was good enough for us, Harry. It was Romeo and Juliet.
I must admit that I was rather annoyed at the idea of seeing Shakespeare
done in such a wretched hole of a place. Still, I felt interested,
in a sort of way. At any rate, I determined to wait for the first act.
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: triumph in being the first to take in water or whatever else they
might need, or the first to breakfast; just as it was a heavy penalty
on the late-comers, not only to come short in all these objects of
desire, but to have to put out to sea with the rest as soon as the
signal was given; since the first-comers had altogether a quiet time
of it, whilst the hindmost must get through the whole business in hot
haste. So again, in the matter of outposts, if he chanced to be
getting the morning meal on hostile territory, pickets would be
posted, as was right and proper, on the land; but, apart from these,
he would raise his masts and keep look-out men on the maintops. These
commanded of course a far wider prospect from their lofty perches than
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