| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: being too short to cover the whole of Signor Giardini's table, decks
one end at the expense of the other."
Giardini bounded in his seat as if he had been stung by a horse-fly,
but swift reflections restored him to his dignity as a host; he looked
up to heaven and again nudged the Count, who was beginning to think
the cook more crazy than Gambara.
This serious and pious way of speaking of art interested the Milanese
extremely. Seated between these two distracted brains, one so noble
and the other so common, and making game of each other to the great
entertainment of the crowd, there was a moment when the Count found
himself wavering between the sublime and its parody, the farcical
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: importing a pony, whereas in the whole settlement at which he
used to shake daily his impotent fist, there was only one path
that was practicable for a pony: a quarter of a mile at most,
hedged in by hundreds of square leagues of virgin forest. But
who knows? The importation of that Bali Pony might have been
part of some deep scheme, of some diplomatic plan, of some
hopeful intrigue. With Almayer one could never tell. He
governed his conduct by considerations removed from the obvious,
by incredible assumptions, which rendered his logic impenetrable
to any reasonable person. I learned all this later. That
morning seeing the figure in pyjamas moving in the mist I said to
Some Reminiscences |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: "I am not going to be rushed into anything.
They will be glad enough to get a gentleman I
imagine. There is no hurry."
A loud whispering from the Steward succeeded
and then again Hamilton was heard with even
intenser scorn.
"What? That young ass who fancies himself
for having been chief mate with Kent so long?
. . . Preposterous."
Giles and I looked at each other. Kent being
the came of my late commander, Captain Giles'
The Shadow Line |
