| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: "Now I'm telling you! Lym reads a lot--solid stuff--
history. Or take Mart Mahoney, the garageman. He's got a lot
of Perry prints of famous pictures in his office. Or old Bingham
Playfair, that died here 'bout a year ago--lived seven miles
out. He was a captain in the Civil War, and knew General
Sherman, and they say he was a miner in Nevada right alongside
of Mark Twain. You'll find these characters in all these
small towns, and a pile of savvy in every single one of them,
if you just dig for it."
"I know. And I do love them. Especially people like
Champ Perry. But I can't be so very enthusiastic over the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: in a whispering, strained voice of great issues, of why his life
had been, and whither he was going. Poor little man! that last
phase is, as it were, disconnected from all the other phases. It
was as if he crawled out from the ruins of his career, and looked
about him before he died. For he had quite clear-minded states
in the intervals of his delirium.
He knew he was almost certainly dying. In a way that took the
burthen of his cares off his mind. There was no more Neal to
face, no more flights or evasions, no punishments.
"It has been a great career, George," he said, "but I shall be
glad to rest. Glad to rest!... Glad to rest."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: door marked PRIVATE on the outside. It let me into a six-feet wide
strip between a long counter and the wall, taken off a spacious,
vaulted room with a grated window and a glazed door giving daylight
to the further end. The first thing I saw right in front of me were
three middle-aged men having a sort of romp together round about
another fellow with a thin, long neck and sloping shoulders who
stood up at a desk writing on a large sheet of paper and taking no
notice except that he grinned quietly to himself. They turned very
sour at once when they saw me. I heard one of them mutter 'Hullo!
What have we here?'
"'I want to see Mr. Powell, please,' I said, very civil but firm; I
Chance |
