| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: the balustrade of the verandah and saw the sheen of moonlight on
the steel spear-heads and heard the rhythmic jingle of brass
anklets as the men moved in single file towards the jetty. The
boat shoved off after a little while, looming large in the full
light of the moon, a black shapeless mass in the slight haze
hanging over the water. Nina fancied she could distinguish the
graceful figure of the trader standing erect in the stern sheets,
but in a little while all the outlines got blurred, confused, and
soon disappeared in the folds of white vapour shrouding the
middle of the river.
Almayer had approached his daughter, and leaning with both arms
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: swaddling-clothes of a new mastery. The house of Bourbon, the younger
sons of the Valois, were at work beneath the surface of the
Reformation.
At the moment when the little boat floated beneath the arch of the
pont au Change the question was strangely complicated by the ambitions
of the Guises, who were rivalling the Bourbons. Thus the Crown,
represented by Catherine de' Medici, was able to sustain the struggle
for thirty years by pitting the one house against the other house;
whereas later, the Crown, instead of standing between various jealous
ambitions, found itself without a barrier, face to face with the
people: Richelieu and Louis XIV. had broken down the barrier of the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: aware that music and dancing were briskly flourishing within.
Every now and then a long low note from the serpent,
which was the chief wind instrument played at these times,
advanced further into the heath than the thin treble part,
and reached their ears alone; and next a more than usual
loud tread from a dancer would come the same way.
With nearer approach these fragmentary sounds became
pieced together, and were found to be the salient points
of the tune called "Nancy's Fancy."
He was there, of course. Who was she that he danced with?
Perhaps some unknown woman, far beneath herself in culture,
Return of the Native |
