Word limit: 400 words. (Excluding the passage!)
Passage 1: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818),
This is a conversation between Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster late in the story after the Monster has requested the Doctor to make a mate for him, a task that Dr. Frankenstein refuses
"I do refuse it," [Dr. Frankenstein replied] "and no torture shall ever extort a consent from me. You may render me the most miserable of men, but you shall never make me base in my own eyes. Shall I create another [monster] like yourself, whose joint wickedness might desolate the world? Begone! I have answered you; you may torture me, but I will never consent."
"You are in the wrong," replied the fiend; "and instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder if you could precipitate me into [a field of ice] and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance...."
Passage 2 Speech by Barack Obama in Cairo, Egypt June 9, 2009
I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.
We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world - tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam. …
Passage 3 Marcus Samuelson
For context, Marcus Samuelson, a well-known Chef with African roots, was born in Ethiopia, but was then adopted as a baby and raised in Sweden. This excerpt records his first trip back in Ethiopia since he was a baby.
"My birth nation [of Ethiopia] is sometimes called the land of 'thirteen months of sunshine,' and it is true: One crystalline day followed another. Decommissioned Russian taxicabs rattled down the city's main boulevards and battled not just other drivers but herds of goats and sheep and cows, the livestock completely unthreatened by our smoke-belched vehicles. The smell of freshly roasting coffee beans poured out from each little shop, even ones with paintings of computers or hairstyles in their windows. Reddish dust kicked up everywhere, and coated everything. The colorfully trimmed cotton scarves and shawls that covered every man or woman's shoulders were often used as masks, held in place by a hand.
In those two weeks, I saw my own face reflected a thousand times over, which not only gave me a sense of belonging I'd had anywhere else in my life, but also a deep reminder of how fate had steered my life on such a different course. I'd see an eleven-year-old version of me with a cardboard tray of tissues and gum set up at an intersection. I'd see my own face dashing into coffee shops, my own hands using a branch to sweep the sidewalk in front of the butcher shop. I'd see an old and bent version of me, wearing a blanket-like gabi shawl in the cool of the early morning, his hand cupped and extended as he chanted his plea for money. 'Birr, birr, birr."
Passage 4 Bethany Jean Clement, "Bakery turnovers: a review." Seattle Times. This review was written after the Besalu Bakery in Ballard had just reopened after having been sold to a new owner.
It still feels remarkably the same: unpretentiously sweet, with its floor of tiny tiles, its peachy-orange walls and KEXP playing.
The plain croissant remains a classic beauty, unabashedly browned on the exterior for that perfect shattery-crispness, producing a cascade of happy shards, with whorls upon whorls of buttery tenderness inside, like eating a divine fingerprint. (I brought one of these back to my possibly equally pastry-obsessed colleague, Tan Vinh: “Holy cow,” he said.)
A piece of rich but airy quiche still puts the overcheesed, dense ones you’ll find some places around town to shame. Super-juicy, clearly local, sweet-tart blackberries — just four nice big ones, a classic exercise in proportion-restraint — formed the heart of a seasonal Danish; the barely lacquered, golden-brown exterior of the pastry made a lovely contrast.
A Washington cherry galette had a puffy, gorgeous picture frame of ethereally layered pastry, delicately dusted with powdered sugar, around a portrait of summertime in deep red and golden-yellow cherries. If this one might have spent a moment too long in the oven, the pastry becoming a bit dry, the cherry interior was still so juicy, a reservoir of liquid formed.