| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: away, but his returning reason informed him that it would not do to
let go the door handle. What was it - madness, a nightmare, or a
trap into which he had been decoyed with fiendish artfulness? Why
- what for? He did not know. Without any sense of guilt in his
breast, in the full peace of his conscience as far as these people
were concerned, the idea that he would be murdered for mysterious
reasons by the couple Verloc passed not so much across his mind as
across the pit of his stomach, and went out, leaving behind a trail
of sickly faintness - an indisposition. Comrade Ossipon did not
feel very well in a very special way for a moment - a long moment.
And he stared. Mr Verloc lay very still meanwhile, simulating
The Secret Agent |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Herland by Charlotte Gilman: instance--we don't know yet what they do with their criminals--
their defectives--their aged. You notice we haven't seen any!
There's got to be something!"
I was inclined to believe that there had to be something, so
I took the bull by the horns--the cow, I should say!--and asked Somel.
"I want to find some flaw in all this perfection," I told her
flatly. "It simply isn't possible that three million people have no
faults. We are trying our best to understand and learn--would
you mind helping us by saying what, to your minds, are the
worst qualities of this unique civilization of yours?"
We were sitting together in a shaded arbor, in one of those
Herland |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: which the judge watched the supposed lunatic, the Marquis naturally
asked what was the object of this visit. On this Popinot glanced
significantly at the old gentleman and the Marquis.
"I believe, Monsieur le Marquis," said he, "that the character of my
functions, and the inquiry that has brought me here, make it desirable
that we should be alone, though it is understood by law that in such
cases the inquiries have a sort of family publicity. I am judge on the
Inferior Court of Appeal for the Department of the Seine, and charged
by the President with the duty of examining you as to certain facts
set forth in a petition for a Commission in Lunacy on the part of the
Marquise d'Espard."
|
