| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: remember to have seen before, and who was therefore doubly
interesting to him. Several subjects of conversation usual in such
cases, such as politics and the weather, seemed to arouse no
particular enthusiasm in his patron's manner. Finally the portly
landlord decided that he would touch upon the theme which was still
absorbing all Hietzing.
"Oh, by the way, sir, do you know that you are in the immediate
vicinity of the place where the murder of Monday evening was
committed? People are still talking about it around here. And I
see by the papers that the murderer was arrested in Pressburg
yesterday and brought to Vienna last night."
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: considered as the ravings of a madman and would not have exculpated
her who suffered through me.
The appearance of Justine was calm. She was dressed in mourning,
and her countenance, always engaging, was rendered, by the solemnity
of her feelings, exquisitely beautiful. Yet she appeared confident
in innocence and did not tremble, although gazed on and execrated
by thousands, for all the kindness which her beauty might otherwise
have excited was obliterated in the minds of the spectators by the
imagination of the enormity she was supposed to have committed.
She was tranquil, yet her tranquillity was evidently constrained;
and as her confusion had before been adduced as a proof of her guilt,
Frankenstein |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: clattered by, and then exclaim, "Ay, there goes Brom Bones
and his gang!" The neighbors looked upon him with a mixture
of awe, admiration, and good-will; and, when any madcap prank
or rustic brawl occurred in the vicinity, always shook their
heads, and warranted Brom Bones was at the bottom of it.
This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the
blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and
though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle
caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that she
did not altogether discourage his hopes. Certain it is, his
advances were signals for rival candidates to retire, who felt no
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: But of them old Castro dared not speak much. He cut himself off
hurriedly, and no amount of persuasion or subtlety could elicit
more in this direction. The size of the Old Ones, too, he curiously
declined to mention. Of the cult, he said that he thought the
centre lay amid the pathless desert of Arabia, where Irem, the
City of Pillars, dreams hidden and untouched. It was not allied
to the European witch-cult, and was virtually unknown beyond its
members. No book had ever really hinted of it, though the deathless
Chinamen said that there were double meanings in the Necronomicon
of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred which the initiated might read
as they chose, especially the much-discussed couplet:
Call of Cthulhu |
