| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: and Wilson preferred companions of a more reflective
habit of mind. He could not help feeling that
there were unreasoning and unreasonable
activities going on in Alexander all the while;
that even after dinner, when most men
achieve a decent impersonality, Bartley had
merely closed the door of the engine-room
and come up for an airing. The machinery
itself was still pounding on.
Bartley's abstraction and Wilson's reflections
Alexander's Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: was not half so solicitous about them as her friends were.
She was tall, dark, severe, with something Indian-like
in the rigid immobility of her face. Her manner was cold,
and she talked little. Guests felt that they were receiving,
not conferring, a favour when they stayed at her house.
Even the smartest travelling men were flattered when
Mrs. Gardener stopped to chat with them for a moment.
The patrons of the hotel were divided into two classes:
those who had seen Mrs. Gardener's diamonds, and those who had not.
When I stole into the parlour, Anson Kirkpatrick, Marshall Field's man,
was at the piano, playing airs from a musical comedy then running in Chicago.
My Antonia |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: "You have my leave," Lucetta was saying gaily. "Speak what
you like."
"Well, then," replied Farfrae, with the unmistakable
inflection of the lover pure, which Henchard had never heard
in full resonance of his lips before, "you are sure to be
much sought after for your position, wealth, talents, and
beauty. But will ye resist the temptation to be one of
those ladies with lots of admirers--ay--and be content to
have only a homely one?"
"And he the speaker?" said she, laughing. "Very well, sir,
what next?"
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
