| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: rock from which the Tremolino, with her plucky heart crushed at one
blow, had slipped off into deep water to her eternal rest. The
vastness of the open sea was smothered in driving mists, and in the
centre of the thinning squall, phantom-like, under a frightful
press of canvas, the unconscious guardacosta dashed on, still
chasing to the northward. Our men were already descending the
reverse slope to look for that punt which we knew from experience
was not always to be found easily. I looked after them with dazed,
misty eyes. One, two, three, four.
"Dominic, where's Cesar?" I cried.
As if repulsing the very sound of the name, the Padrone made that
 The Mirror of the Sea |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: me, Fanny."
Theodore's manager, Kurt Stein, was to have followed him in
ten days. The war changed that. The war was to change many
things. Fanny seemed to sense the influx of musicians that
was to burst upon the United States following the first few
weeks of the catastrophe, and she set about forestalling it.
Advertising. That was what Theodore needed. She had
faith enough in his genius. But her business sense told her
that this genius must be enhanced by the proper setting.
She set about creating this setting. She overlooked no
chance to fix his personality in the kaleidoscopic mind of
 Fanny Herself |