| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: innumerable Pall Malls as he drew diagrams and worked equations
from six in the morning until midnight.
"Now, Langueduc, if I used that formula, where would my A point
be?"
Langueduc lazily shifts his six-foot-three of football material
and tries to concentrate.
"OhahI'm damned if I know, Mr. Rooney."
"Oh, why of course, of course you can't use that formula. That's
what I wanted you to say."
"Why, sure, of course."
"Do you see why?"
This Side of Paradise |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: sentiment to blot out, anything with which to satisfy my thirst for
vengeance? You are nothing! If you were a man or a woman, I would kill
you, but--'
"Sarrasine made a gesture of disgust, and turned his face away;
thereupon he noticed the statue.
" 'And that is a delusion!' he cried.
"Then, turning to Zambinella once more, he continued:
" 'A woman's heart was to me a place of refuge, a fatherland. Have you
sisters who resemble you? No. Then die! But no, you shall live. To
leave you your life is to doom you to a fate worse than death. I
regret neither my blood nor my life, but my future and the fortune of
|
