| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: while you spoke I listened to the voice of my own self; then this
man came, and all was still; there was only the murmur of his
love. You call him a savage! What do you call my mother, your
wife?"
"Nina!" cried Almayer, "take your eyes off my face."
She looked down directly, but continued speaking only a little
above a whisper.
"In time," she went on, "both our voices, that man's and mine,
spoke together in a sweetness that was intelligible to our ears
only. You were speaking of gold then, but our ears were filled
with the song of our love, and we did not hear you. Then I found
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: Count, who went away, trying to evade the civilities of Giardini and
his wife.
On the following day Giardini took the Count up to the room where the
Gambaras lodged. Though Marianna fully knew her lover's noble soul,--
for there are natures which quickly enter into each other's spirit,--
Marianna was too good a housewife not to betray her annoyance at
receiving such a fine gentleman in so humble a room. Everything was
exquisitely clean. She had spent the morning in dusting her motley
furniture, the handiwork of Signor Giardini, who had put it together,
at odd moments of leisure, out of the fragments of the instruments
rejected by Gambara.
Gambara |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: surroundings. Fortunately for them, their assumption of authority
in these art-matters came to entire grief.
It is evident, then, that all authority in such things is bad.
People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable
for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one
answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist
is no government at all. Authority over him and his art is
ridiculous. It has been stated that under despotisms artists have
produced lovely work. This is not quite so. Artists have visited
despots, not as subjects to be tyrannised over, but as wandering
wonder-makers, as fascinating vagrant personalities, to be
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