| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: they were strangers, questioned their presence in the
palace of Astok.
Once more Carthoris and Kar Komak had recourse to
their blades, and before they had won their way to one
of the lifts the noise of the conflict must have aroused
the entire palace, for they heard men shouting, and as
they passed the many levels on their quick passage to
the landing-stage they saw armed men running hither
and thither in search of the cause of the commotion.
Beside the stage lay the Thuria, with three warriors on guard.
Again the Heliumite and the Lotharian fought shoulder to shoulder,
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: fusion candidates were set up. The revolutionary point was thereby
broken off from the social demands of the proletariat and a democratic
turn given to them; while, from the democratic claims of the small
traders' class, the mere political form was rubbed off and the Socialist
point was pushed forward. Thus came the Social Democracy about. The
new Mountain, the result of this combination, contained, with the
exception of some figures from the working class and some Socialist
sectarians, the identical elements of the old Mountain, only numerically
stronger. In the course of events it had, however, changed, together
with the class that it represented. The peculiar character of the
Social Democracy is summed up in this that democratic-republican
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: The other boat returned to Ratona bearing a contri-
bution from the Pajaro's store of ice, the usual roll of
newspapers and one passenger -- Taylor Plunkett, sheriff
of Chatham County, Kentucky.
Bridger, the United States consul at Ratona, was clean-
ing his rifle in the official shanty under a bread-fruit tree
twenty yards from the water of the harbour. The consul
occupied a place somewhat near the tail of his political
party's procession. The music of the band wagon
sounded very faintly to him in the distance. The plums
of office went to others. Bridger's share of the spoils --
|
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: which so weighted down my poor father that his body could
not rise again to the surface. It is impossible to kill
anyone in this land, as perhaps you know, but when my
father was pressed down into the mud at the bottom of the
deep pool and the stones held him so he could never
escape, he was of no more use to himself or the world
than if he had died. Knowing this, Krewl proclaimed
himself King, taking possession of the royal castle and
driving all my father's people out. I was a small boy,
then, but when I grew up I became a gardener. I have
served King Krewl without his knowing that I am the son
The Scarecrow of Oz |
