| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: "Order the carriage," I said to Lucas, in a state of agitation you can
easily conceive.
"But, madame," replied Lucas, "monsieur has ordered the carriage to
fetch him at half-past nine o'clock, and Tony has already started."
"Then send for a cab."
"I don't know that I can find one," said our old servant, who is a man
of difficulties; "it is beginning to rain."
Without noticing that remark and without thinking of Monsieur
Dorlange, I went hastily to my room to put on my bonnet and shawl.
That done, I returned to the salon, where my visitor still remained.
"You must excuse me, monsieur," I said to him, "for leaving you so
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: poem. Humpty-Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a
portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all.
For instance, take the two words "fuming" and "furious." Make up your
mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say
first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so
little towards "fuming," you will say "fuming-furious;" if they turn, by even
a hair's breadth, towards "furious," you will say "furious-fuming;" but if you
have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say "frumious."
Supposing that, when Pistol uttered the well-known words--
"Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die!"
Justice Shallow had felt certain that it was either William or Richard, but
The Hunting of the Snark |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: again. Then put a snapper at the end, so if they're crowded for space they can
cut off your contents anywhere, reattach the snapper, and the story will still
retain form. There, that's enough. Study the rest out for yourself."
They both rose to their feet, Edna quite carried away by his enthusiasm and
his quick, jerky sentences, bristling with the things she wanted to know.
"And remember, Miss Wyman, if you're ambitious, that the aim and end of
journalism is not the feature article. Avoid the rut. The feature is a trick.
Master it, but don't let it master you. But master it you must; for if you
can't learn to do a feature well, you can never expect to do anything better.
In short, put your whole self into it, and yet, outside of it, above it,
remain yourself, if you follow me. And now good luck to you."
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