| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: "Oh," said she; "I think I know the difference
between a tiger and a lapdog. But I'll bear the warning
in mind, just the same."
For, after all her success in capturing them, she was
a little afraid of these people who had once displayed
such extraordinary powers.
Chapter Eleven
Zella Goes to Coregos
The forest in which Nikobob lived with his wife and
daughter stood between the mountains and the City of
Regos, and a well-beaten path wound among the trees,
Rinkitink In Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: gazing up at Lousteau, "I see how the story is progressing. I know it
all. I am in Rome; I can see the body of a murdered husband whose
wife, as bold as she is wicked, has made her bed on the crater of a
volcano. Every night, at every kiss, she says to herself, 'All will be
discovered!' "
"Can you see her," said Lousteau, "clasping Monsieur Adolphe in her
arms, to her heart, throwing her whole life into a kiss?--Adolphe I
see as a well-made young man, but not clever--the sort of man an
Italian woman likes. Rinaldo hovers behind the scenes of a plot we do
not know, but which must be as full of incident as a melodrama by
Pixerecourt. Or we can imagine Rinaldo crossing the stage in the
The Muse of the Department |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: plan. Once more he pulled himself together, once more he embarked upon
a life of toil, once more he stinted himself in everything, once more
he left clean and decent surroundings for a dirty, mean existence. In
other words, until something better should turn up, he embraced the
calling of an ordinary attorney--a calling which, not then possessed
of a civic status, was jostled on very side, enjoyed little respect
at the hands of the minor legal fry (or, indeed, at its own), and
perforce met with universal slights and rudeness. But sheer necessity
compelled Chichikov to face these things. Among commissions entrusted
to him was that of placing in the hands of the Public Trustee several
hundred peasants who belonged to a ruined estate. The estate had
Dead Souls |
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 Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "We are not brothers," returned the Gray Ape, sternly. "Who are
you, and how came you in the forest of Gugu?"
"We are two Li-Mon-Eags," said Ruggedo, inventing the name. "Our
home is in Sky Island, and we have come to earth to warn the forest
beasts that the people of Oz are about to make war upon them and
enslave them, so that they will become beasts of burden forever after
and obey only the will of their two-legged masters."
A low roar of anger arose from the Council of Beasts.
"WHO'S going to do that?" asked Loo the Unicorn, in a high, squeaky
voice, at the same time rising to his feet.
"The people of Oz," said Ruggedo.
The Magic of Oz |
