| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: breath, for her voice was no longer a voice: "I have waited for you
with the greatest impatience." A bright flush rose to her cheeks. It
was a great effort to her to speak.
" ' "Madame," I began. She signed to me to be silent. At that moment
the old housekeeper rose and said in my ear, "Do not speak; Madame la
Comtesse is not in a state to bear the slightest noise, and what you
say might agitate her."
" 'I sat down. A few instants after, Madame de Merret collected all
her remaining strength to move her right hand, and slipped it, not
without infinite difficulty, under the bolster; she then paused a
moment. With a last effort she withdrew her hand; and when she brought
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: ran down on the main-deck shouting some order or other,
and the chief mate came to meet me, touching his cap.
There was a sort of curiosity in his eye that I did not like.
I don't know whether the steward had told them that I was "queer" only,
or downright drunk, but I know the man meant to have a good look at me.
I watched him coming with a smile which, as he got into point-blank range,
took effect and froze his very whiskers. I did not give him time
to open his lips.
"Square the yards by lifts and braces before the hands go to breakfast."
It was the first particular order I had given on board that ship;
and I stayed on deck to see it executed, too. I had felt the need
The Secret Sharer |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: offended Tanith, and the cynocephaluses of Tanith should avenge her.
Others were of opinion that he should be led about on a dromedary
after linen wicks, dipped in oil, had been inserted in his body in
several places;--and they took pleasure in the thought of the large
animal wandering through the streets with this man writhing beneath
the fires like a candelabrum blown about by the wind.
But what citizens should be charged with his torture, and why
disappoint the rest? They would have liked a kind of death in which
the whole town might take part, in which every hand, every weapon,
everything Carthaginian, to the very paving-stones in the streets and
the waves in the gulf, could rend him, and crush him, and annihilate
Salammbo |
