| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: would have to be enclosed and protected, the only form that,
in my fancy, the afteryears could take for them was that of
a romantic, a really royal extension of the garden and the park.
It may be, of course, above all, that what suddenly broke
into this gives the previous time a charm of stillness--
that hush in which something gathers or crouches.
The change was actually like the spring of a beast.
In the first weeks the days were long; they often, at their finest,
gave me what I used to call my own hour, the hour when, for my pupils,
teatime and bedtime having come and gone, I had, before my final retirement,
a small interval alone. Much as I liked my companions, this hour was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: power. White always mates.
The voice from the telescreen paused and added in a different and much
graver tone: 'You are warned to stand by for an important announcement at
fifteen-thirty. Fifteen-thirty! This is news of the highest importance.
Take care not to miss it. Fifteen-thirty!' The tinkling music struck up
again.
Winston's heart stirred. That was the bulletin from the front; instinct
told him that it was bad news that was coming. All day, with little spurts
of excitement, the thought of a smashing defeat in Africa had been in and
out of his mind. He seemed actually to see the Eurasian army swarming
across the never-broken frontier and pouring down into the tip of Africa
1984 |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: had been all well drunk on the day before, and drinking on two successive
days is such a bad thing.' This is confirmed by the authority of
Eryximachus the physician, who further proposes that instead of listening
to the flute-girl and her 'noise' they shall make speeches in honour of
love, one after another, going from left to right in the order in which
they are reclining at the table. All of them agree to this proposal, and
Phaedrus, who is the 'father' of the idea, which he has previously
communicated to Eryximachus, begins as follows:--
He descants first of all upon the antiquity of love, which is proved by the
authority of the poets; secondly upon the benefits which love gives to man.
The greatest of these is the sense of honour and dishonour. The lover is
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