| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: in Fort Adams reach, which is five miles long. A 'reach' is a piece
of straight river, and of course the current drives through such a place
in a pretty lively way.
That trip we went to Grand Gulf, from New Orleans, in four days
(three hundred and forty miles); the 'Eclipse' and 'Shotwell'
did it in one. We were nine days out, in the chute of 63
(seven hundred miles); the 'Eclipse' and 'Shotwell' went
there in two days. Something over a generation ago,
a boat called the 'J. M. White' went from New Orleans
to Cairo in three days, six hours, and forty-four minutes.
In 1853 the 'Eclipse' made the same trip in three days,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: was that iron casting? Pray God, it was heavy enough; and pray God,
it was not too heavy! Yes, here it was! She pretended to stumble
- and caught the thing up in her arms. An exultant cry went up
from behind her as she appeared to fall - oaths, a chorus of them,
as she went on again.
They had not gained on her before; but with the weight in her arms,
especially as she was obliged to carry it awkwardly in order to
shield it from their view with her body, she could not run so fast
now, and they were beginning to close up on her. But she was on the
wharf now, and there was not much farther to go, and - and surely
she could hold all the lead she needed until she reached the edge.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: scattered, and at one corner of which a considerable amount of
gasoline must have been spilled lately enough to leave a strong
odor even at this extreme superplateau altitude. In other words,
it could not be other than a sort of camp - a camp made by questing
beings who, like us, had been turned back by the unexpectedly
choked way to the abyss.
Let me be plain. The scattered objects
were, so far as substance was concerned, all from Lake’s camp;
and consisted of tin cans as queerly opened as those we had seen
at that ravaged place, many spent matches, three illustrated books
more or less curiously smudged, an empty ink bottle with its pictorial
At the Mountains of Madness |
