| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: we had found. We had at once recognized it as a monstrous cylindrical
tower figuring in the very earliest carvings, but appearing only
as a prodigious round aperture from above. Something about the
impressiveness of its rendering, even in these hasty diagrams,
made us think that its subglacial levels must still form a feature
of peculiar importance. Perhaps it embodied architectural marvels
as yet unencountered by us. It was certainly of incredible age
according to the sculptures in which it figured - being indeed
among the first things built in the city. Its carvings, if preserved,
could not but be highly significant. Moreover, it might form a
good present link with the upper world - a shorter route than
At the Mountains of Madness |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: was lumbering along,--these things, together with an
indescribable magnetic something, drew us before long into one of
those short-lived traveller's intimacies, in which we unbend with
the more complacency because the intercourse is by its very
nature transient, and makes no implicit demands upon the future.
We had not come thirty leagues before we were talking of women
and love. Then, with all the circumspection demanded in such
matters, we proceeded naturally to the topic of our lady-loves.
Young as we both were, we still admired "the woman of a certain
age," that is to say, the woman between thirty-five and forty.
Oh! any poet who should have listened to our talk, for heaven
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: got up, was the coffee fresh when we had appeared at breakfast, and how had
we passed the morning. Having toiled up these stairs of almost national
politeness we landed, triumphant and smiling, and paused to recover breath.
"And now," said Herr Erchardt, "I have a pleasure in store for you. The
Frau Professor is going to be one of us for the afternoon. Yes," nodding
graciously to the Advanced Lady. "Allow me to introduce you to each
other."
We bowed very formally, and looked each other over with that eye which is
known as "eagle" but is far more the property of the female than that most
unoffending of birds. "I think you are English?" she said. I acknowledged
the fact. "I am reading a great many English books just now--rather, I am
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