| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: exactly as an imprisoned mouse is thrown by a cat from paw to paw.
He watched the spectacle a while with morbid interest.
"That's a gruesome reversal of roles, Tydomin."
"One can see you're disgusted," she replied, stifling a yawn. "But
that is because you are a slave to words. If you called that plant
an animal, you would find its occupation perfectly natural and
pleasing. And why should you not call it an animal?"
"I am quite aware that, as long as I remain in the Ifdawn Marest, I
shall go on listening to this sort of language."
They trudged along for an hour or more without talking. The day
became overcast. A thin mist began to shroud the landscape, and the
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: apparent.
Plays by American authors followed in rapid succes-
sion, the stigma against the theater gradually and com-
pletely faded away; and when the first citizen of the
United States, the immortal Washington, attended in
state as President to witness a first-night performance
of an American play, the revolution was complete. At
Boston a number of the most prominent, intelligent,
and influential citizens assembled in town meetings, and
passed resolutions instructing their representatives to
demand of the Legislature an immediate repeal of the
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: fortress. His heart quailed before the enormous pyramidal shape. It was too
strong, it could not be stormed. A thousand rocket bombs would not batter
it down. He wondered again for whom he was writing the diary. For the
future, for the past--for an age that might be imaginary. And in front of
him there lay not death but annihilation. The diary would be reduced to
ashes and himself to vapour. Only the Thought Police would read what he had
written, before they wiped it out of existence and out of memory. How could
you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an
anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?
The telescreen struck fourteen. He must leave in ten minutes. He had to be
back at work by fourteen-thirty.
1984 |
