| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: looming above the waters. The steamer passed along near the shores,
but the savage Papuans, who are in the lowest scale of humanity,
but are not, as has been asserted, cannibals, did not make their appearance.
The panorama of the islands, as they steamed by them, was superb.
Vast forests of palms, arecs, bamboo, teakwood, of the gigantic mimosa,
and tree-like ferns covered the foreground, while behind, the graceful outlines
of the mountains were traced against the sky; and along the coasts swarmed
by thousands the precious swallows whose nests furnish a luxurious dish
to the tables of the Celestial Empire. The varied landscape afforded by
the Andaman Islands was soon passed, however, and the Rangoon rapidly
approached the Straits of Malacca, which gave access to the China seas.
Around the World in 80 Days |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: state of her feelings, or the precise nature of what she was doing.
Had she spoken ever so clearly he was, I take it, too elated to hear
her distinctly. I don't mean to imply that he was a fool. Oh dear
no! But he had no training in the usual conventions, and we must
remember that he had no experience whatever of women. He could only
have an ideal conception of his position. An ideal is often but a
flaming vision of reality.
To him enters Fyne, wound up, if I may express myself so
irreverently, wound up to a high pitch by his wife's interpretation
of the girl's letter. He enters with his talk of meanness and
cruelty, like a bucket of water on the flame. Clearly a shock. But
Chance |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: may run, hidden ones under the mantles of light, appropriators,
although we resemble heirs and spendthrifts, arrangers and
collectors from morning till night, misers of our wealth and our
full-crammed drawers, economical in learning and forgetting,
inventive in scheming, sometimes proud of tables of categories,
sometimes pedants, sometimes night-owls of work even in full day,
yea, if necessary, even scarecrows--and it is necessary nowadays,
that is to say, inasmuch as we are the born, sworn, jealous
friends of SOLITUDE, of our own profoundest midnight and midday
solitude--such kind of men are we, we free spirits! And perhaps
ye are also something of the same kind, ye coming ones? ye NEW
Beyond Good and Evil |
