| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: imagination, and of which they simply write a report, seriously or in
irony, according to the mood of the moment. As to an opinion, whatever
it may be, French wit can always justify it, being admirably ready to
defend either side of any case. And conscience counts for so little,
these /bravi/ have so little value for their own words, that they will
loudly praise in the greenroom the work they tear to tatters in print.
Nay, men have been known to transfer their services from one paper to
another without being at the pains to consider that the opinions of
the new sheet must be diametrically antagonistic to those of the old.
Madame de la Baudraye could smile to see Lousteau with one article on
the Legitimist side and one on the side of the new dynasty, both on
The Muse of the Department |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: "If I thought it was really right and necessary, I could
perhaps bring myself to it, for your sake, dear; but I do not want
to--not at all. You would not have a mere submission, would you?
That is not the kind of high romantic love you spoke of, surely?
It is a pity, of course, that you should have to adjust your highly
specialized faculties to our unspecialized ones."
Confound it! I hadn't married the nation, and I told her so.
But she only smiled at her own limitations and explained that she
had to "think in we's."
Confound it again! Here I'd have all my energies focused on
one wish, and before I knew it she'd have them dissipated in one
Herland |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: It was at Circle City, ere the year was out, that Pete's
apprehensions were realized. "Black" Burton, a man evil-tempered
and malicious, had been picking a quarrel with a tenderfoot at the
bar, when Thornton stepped good-naturedly between. Buck, as was
his custom, was lying in a corner, head on paws, watching his
master's every action. Burton struck out, without warning,
straight from the shoulder. Thornton was sent spinning, and saved
himself from falling only by clutching the rail of the bar.
Those who were looking on heard what was neither bark nor yelp,
but a something which is best described as a roar, and they saw
Buck's body rise up in the air as he left the floor for Burton's
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