| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: either the Tarantula took fright and deserted her lair for the
open, or else she stubbornly remained with her back to the blade.
I would then give a sudden jerk to the knife, which flung both the
earth and the Lycosa to a distance, enabling me to capture her. By
employing this hunting-method, I sometimes caught as many as
fifteen Tarantulae within the space of an hour.
'In a few cases, in which the Tarantula was under no
misapprehension as to the trap which I was setting for her, I was
not a little surprised, when I pushed the stalk far enough down to
twist it round her hiding-place, to see her play with the spikelet
more or less contemptuously and push it away with her legs, without
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: a step forward. "Aunt!" she said, "I can't--"
Then she caught a wild appeal in her aunt's blue eye, halted, and
the door clicked upon them.
There was a pause, and then the front door slammed. . . .
Ann Veronica realized that she was alone with the world. And
this time the departure had a tremendous effect of finality. She
had to resist an impulse of sheer terror, to run out after them
and give in.
"Gods," she said, at last, "I've done it this time!"
"Well!" She took up the neat morocco purse, opened it, and
examined the contents.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: prisoner to be silent.
But Iaokanann replied: "I shall cry aloud like a savage bear, like the
wild ass, like a woman in travail! The punishment of heaven has
already visited itself upon thy incest! May God inflict thee with the
sterility of mules!"
At these words, a sound of suppressed laughter arose here and there
among the listeners.
Vitellius had remained close to the opening of the dungeon while
Iaokanann was speaking. His interpreter, in impassive tones,
translated into the Roman tongue all the threats and invectives that
rolled up from the depths of the gloomy prison. The tetrarch and
Herodias |
