| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: am I sapphic, I find in all the works of all the greatest writers,
especially in their unedited letters, some touch, some sign of myself--some
resemblance, some part of myself, like a thousand reflections of my own
hands in a dark mirror."
"But what a bother," said I.
"I do not know what you mean by 'bother'; is it rather the curse of my
genius..." She paused suddenly, staring at me. "Do you know my tragedy?"
she asked.
I shook my head.
"My tragedy is my mother. Living with her I live with the coffin of my
unborn aspirations. You heard that about the safety-pin to-night. It may
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Glinda of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the Skeezers restore my wife to her proper form and
give back her four cans of brains. Also make them agree
to allow us to catch fish in their lake."
"No," returned Ozma, "I will not do that, for it
would be unjust. I will have the Golden Pig again
transformed into your wife Rora, and give her one can
of brains, but the other three cans must be restored to
those she robbed. Neither may you catch fish in the
Lake of the Skeezers, for it is their lake and the fish
belong to them. This arrangement is just and honorable,
and you must agree to it."
Glinda of Oz |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: would reply. "As a matter of fact, I have ready a tchetvertak[3] or
two." "Oh, no, no," the answer would come. "Not a tchetvertak per
copyist, but a rouble, is the fee." "What? A rouble per copyist?"
"Certainly. What is there to grumble at in that? Of the money the
copyists will receive a tchetvertak apiece, and the rest will go to
the Government." Upon that the disillusioned suitor would fly out upon
the new order of things brought about by the inquiry into illicit
fees, and curse both the tchinovniks and their uppish, insolent
behaviour. "Once upon a time," would the suitor lament, "one DID
know what to do. Once one had tipped the Director a bank-note, one's
affair was, so to speak, in the hat. But now one has to pay a rouble
Dead Souls |
