| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: careening through boundless distance. She distinguished voices,
low at first, apparently far away. Then she opened her eyes to
blurred but conscious sight.
The car had come to a stop. Link was lying face down over the
wheel. Nels was rubbing her hands, calling to her. She saw a
house with clean whitewashed wall and brown-tiled roof. Beyond,
over a dark mountain range, peeped the last red curve, the last
beautiful ray of the setting sun.
XXV At the End of the Road
Madeline saw that the car was surrounded by armed Mexicans. They
presented a contrast to the others she had seen that day; she
The Light of Western Stars |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: trembled lest a flash of thought should suddenly light up the deep
sightless hollows under the grizzled brows, as you might fear to see
brigands with torches and poniards in the mouth of a cavern. You felt
that there was a lion in that cage of flesh, a lion spent with useless
raging against iron bars. The fires of despair had burned themselves
out into ashes, the lava had cooled; but the tracks of the flames, the
wreckage, and a little smoke remained to bear witness to the violence
of the eruption, the ravages of the fire. These images crowded up at
the sight of the clarionet player, till the thoughts now grown cold in
his face burned hot within my soul.
The fiddle and the flageolet took a deep interest in bottles and
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: took my gun away. You see, they thought I was dead.
There was nothing I could do!" Luis Cervantes explained
apologetically. Then:
"Nobody threw me down," Solis said. "I'm here be-
cause I like to play safe."
The irony in Solis' voice brought a blush to Cer-
vantes' cheek.
"By God, that chief of yours is a man!" Solis said.
"What daring, what assurance! He left me gasping--and a
hell of a lot of other men with more experience than me,
too!"
The Underdogs |
