| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: self-expression which artists find in their search for motives.
The necessity which impelled me was a hidden, obscure necessity,
a completely masked and unaccountable phenomenon. Or perhaps
some idle and frivolous magician (there must be magicians in
London) had cast a spell over me through his parlour window as I
explored the maze of streets east and west in solitary leisurely
walks without chart and compass. Till I began to write that
novel I had written nothing but letters, and not very many of
these. I never made a note of a fact, of an impression, or of an
anecdote in my life. The conception of a planned book was
entirely outside my mental range when I sat down to write; the
A Personal Record |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: feel the need of us, and, what is the greatest miracle of all, the Persian
king himself was driven to such extremity as to come round to the opinion,
that from this city, of which he was the destroyer, and from no other, his
salvation would proceed.
And if a person desired to bring a deserved accusation against our city, he
would find only one charge which he could justly urge--that she was too
compassionate and too favourable to the weaker side. And in this instance
she was not able to hold out or keep her resolution of refusing aid to her
injurers when they were being enslaved, but she was softened, and did in
fact send out aid, and delivered the Hellenes from slavery, and they were
free until they afterwards enslaved themselves. Whereas, to the great king
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: even the faintest sound of pursuit.
Here a low whistle, the prearranged signal, apprised the balance
of our party that I was returning, and we were met by the three
with every manifestation of enthusiastic rejoicing.
But little time was wasted in narration of our adventure.
Tars Tarkas and Carthoris exchanged the dignified and
formal greetings common upon Barsoom, but I could tell
intuitively that the Thark loved my boy and that Carthoris
reciprocated his affection.
Xodar and the green Jeddak were formally presented to
each other. Then Thuvia was lifted to the least fractious
The Gods of Mars |
