| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: the night--the dark--
"You're like a bird half asleep in its nest, Rachel. You're asleep.
You're talking in your sleep."
Half asleep, and murmuring broken words, they stood in the angle
made by the bow of the boat. It slipped on down the river.
Now a bell struck on the bridge, and they heard the lapping of water
as it rippled away on either side, and once a bird startled in its
sleep creaked, flew on to the next tree, and was silent again.
The darkness poured down profusely, and left them with scarcely
any feeling of life, except that they were standing there together
in the darkness.
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: could not now remember whether it was before or after having the dream that
he had seen O'Brien for the first time, nor could he remember when he had
first identified the voice as O'Brien's. But at any rate the identification
existed. It was O'Brien who had spoken to him out of the dark.
Winston had never been able to feel sure--even after this morning's flash
of the eyes it was still impossible to be sure whether O'Brien was a friend
or an enemy. Nor did it even seem to matter greatly. There was a link of
understanding between them, more important than affection or partisanship.
'We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness,' he had said.
Winston did not know what it meant, only that in some way or another it
would come true.
1984 |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: the Owl Club danced; then there was a little stir in the streets,
and here and there one could see a lighted window until midnight.
But the next night all was dark again.
After I refused to join `the Owls,' as they were called, I made
a bold resolve to go to the Saturday night dances at Firemen's Hall.
I knew it would be useless to acquaint my elders with any such plan.
Grandfather didn't approve of dancing, anyway; he would only say that if I
wanted to dance I could go to the Masonic Hall, among `the people we knew.'
It was just my point that I saw altogether too much of the people we knew.
My bedroom was on the ground floor, and as I studied there,
I had a stove in it. I used to retire to my room early on
My Antonia |
