| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: and gave me the most horrible spectacle that ever a European eye
beheld. There was a woman with a cancer in her breast, swelled
to a monstrous size, full of holes, in two or three of which I
could have easily crept, and covered my whole body. There was a
fellow with a wen in his neck, larger than five wool-packs; and
another, with a couple of wooden legs, each about twenty feet
high. But the most hateful sight of all, was the lice crawling
on their clothes. I could see distinctly the limbs of these
vermin with my naked eye, much better than those of a European
louse through a microscope, and their snouts with which they
rooted like swine. They were the first I had ever beheld, and I
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: higher and more powerful, make use of them. In the former case
they are dangerous, disturbing, unsettling books, in the latter
case they are herald-calls which summon the bravest to THEIR
bravery. Books for the general reader are always ill-smelling
books, the odour of paltry people clings to them. Where the
populace eat and drink, and even where they reverence, it is
accustomed to stink. One should not go into churches if one
wishes to breathe PURE air.
31. In our youthful years we still venerate and despise without
the art of NUANCE, which is the best gain of life, and we have
rightly to do hard penance for having fallen upon men and things
Beyond Good and Evil |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: hand, who came in like a ram ready to butt his opponent, showing a
receding forehead, a small pointed head, and a colorless face of the
hue of a glass of dirty water. You would have taken him for an usher.
The stranger wore an old coat, much worn at the seams; but he had a
diamond in his shirt frill, and gold rings in his ears.
" 'Monsieur,' said I, 'whom have I the honor of addressing?'--He took
a chair, placed himself in front of my fire, put his hat on my table,
and answered while he rubbed his hands: 'Dear me, it is very cold.--
Monsieur, I am Monsieur Regnault.'
" I was encouraging myself by saying to myself, '/Il bondo cani!/
Seek!'
La Grande Breteche |
