....2nd that!!Quote:
Originally Posted by trismegistus
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....2nd that!!Quote:
Originally Posted by trismegistus
Dont rember the name but it stared: "**** Off."
Plus, lets not forget LS's "the Baudelaire orphans looks out the grimy window at the Finite Forest wondering if their lives would ever get any better."
If you've read the Meserible Mill... you'll get that Joke.
"There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills." This opening line from Cry, the Beloved Country may not sound very intriguing at first glance. However, most people I know who have read the book (and most have read it more than once) find that the words evoke great emotion. I visited South Africa last spring, and the sentence has even more meaning to me now.
I once came across a web page that had a trivia quiz: given the
opening line of a novel, tell the title and author.
When I decided to try to write my first book,
http://toosmallforsupernova.org , I gave much thought to the
importance of famous opening lines.
I chose the simple three word sentence "I cannot sleep," which, at the
moment that I actually commenced writing, was a simple fact, for it
was 3 a.m. and I suddenly awoke and could not go back to sleep.
But that three word sentence can have another meaning, namely, that I
must not sleep. And sleep may be a euphemism for death, or it may
connote inaction or silence.
Has anyone mentioned yet that most famous opening line of Tolstoy's
Anna Karenina, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is
unhappy in its own way?" This is a fabulous opening line,
but one might conceivably write volumes about what it really means,
or whether it is true, and if it is true, how one might
demonstrate its truth.
In the first paragraph of my book, I mention, as an example of an opening line,
the first line of Plato's Republic,
"I went down yesterday to
Piraeus." Tradition has it that Plato rewrote the first page of the
Republic fifty times. The first word in Greek, "katabenein" (I went
down), is claimed by some to be most significant, denoting the
beginning of a great descent. Indeed, the final Book of the Republic is
a mythical descent into the underworld to watch souls choose the
next life into which they shall be reborn, while the Three Fates spin
the fabric of the causal nexus of each life.
Edward Jones won a Pulitzer for his book which opens with a great
first line, “You never get over having been a child.”
Opening and ending lines may sometimes assume enormous
significance in writings whose structure is intended by the author to
connote or symbolize something of significance to the reader. Vallery
wrote an essay about one line from Pascal's Pensees (Meditations)
which he describes as "a perfect poem." My French is poor, and I am
writing all this from memory, but the line is "Le silence eternelle et de
espaces enfinite, m'fraie" ("The eternal silence and the infinite
spaces, frighten me.") Vallery claims that the form of the sentece
imitates the very thing which it tries to convey: namely, there are two
infinite entities, the silence and the space, and the "I" or self ("m'fraie) is
alienated, outside of these two immensities. It is not simply the
infinitude which frightens, but also the alienation.
At St. John's College, in Annapolis, with its four year "Great Books"
program, all students were required to spend several months in their
Sophomore year studying Bach's "St. Matthew's Passion." We learned
that the lowest note in the entire piece was on the word "Todd" (,
"death," my German is not so good either.) Also, there is a chorus
which sings "Donner und Blitzen" (thunder and lightening), at the
moment of the crucifixion, when the veil of the temple is rent in twain,
and there is a terrific hiatus or pause in the midst of the singing,
obviously symbolic of the tearing of the curtain. These are yet other examples of
form imitating content. Aristotle, in his Poetics,
I think, states that it is our human delight in imitating which lies at the heart
of the artistic endeavor.
In the beginning of Homer's Iliad, there is the famous "Catalog of
Ships" wherein Homer enumerates the ships lined up on the beach
outside of the city of Troy. It is significant that there are an ODD
number of ships, rather than an EVEN number, since only ODD
numbers may have a mid-most member, with an equal number of
members balanced on either side. The mid-most ship is that of
Odysseus. The ship moored at the extreme farthest from Troy is that
of swift-footed Achilles. The ship moored closed to Troy is that of
Ajax, an enormous but slow hulking figure who is nicknamed "The
Wall." Ajax is so enormous that the enemy seems simply to bouce off
his chest. But his enormous size makes him slow, and hence, his ship
must be closest to Troy, so that the enemy will encounter Ajax first.
Achilles is the swiftest of all the Achaeans, and can run up to meet
the advancing enemy before anyone else. Odysseus, who is situated
mid-most, is an ideal mean or balance between two extremes.
Odysseus very anatomy bespeaks his balanced nature. His legs are
very short, so he stands shorter than all other warriors, yet his torso is
very long so that, when seated in counsel, he towers above all the
rest, and his words (for he is wily) overwhelm like a snowstorm in the
deep of winter. At the end of Plato's Republic, in the underworld,
when all the souls draw lots to see who will choose first amongst the
lives in which to be reborn, it is Odysseus who draws the last lot. Yet,
each soul chooses something opposite from its former life. A cruel
tyrant chooses the life of a swan. A slave chooses to be reborn as a
tyrant, only to discover that he is fated to eat his own children. Plato
says that it makes no difference whether one chooses first or last, for
each shall choose the life which they have been in karmic fashion
conditioned to choose by their previous experiences. Odysseus, who
chooses last, finds a life neglected by all the others, the life of a
middle class citizen in a free democratic society.
"I am an American, Chicago born, Chicago that somber city; and go at things as I have taught myself-first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes not so innocent."
From The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
'Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again....'
I hereby officially curse this thread! :flare: :cursing smiley:
I read it just before going to bed last night and could not fall asleep to save my life, trying to think what my favorite first sentence would be...
*shakes her fist and mumbles words in an odd language*
I still cannot decide which one mine would be. Everytime I think of one I am going 'Ahhh, yess...' gooey for a minute or two... Till I remember the next book...
OK, I am leaving... Some serious thinking to do.
lets see, first line from Morgan Llwelyn's the hosre goddess was "the spirits walked tonight" that was one of my favorite, it was also the first paragraph
one of my favorites was anne micheals, from fugitive peices "time is a blind guide" after reading this i started up a philosophical conversation with my dad in the middle of the bangladeshi airport in which he stalked off saying he doesn't like to think that way...
my favorite paragraph, chapter in any book is "my mother is a fish" from faulkner's as i lay dieing
and my favorite ending "tis" frank McCourt from angela's ashes
"The day broke dull and grey." (from Maugham's "Of Human Bondage")
Actually, I wanted to put here the first sentence of Marquez's masterpiece, but it was already here :)
I like Maugham's style so much, anyway.
Wow its been a while since I posted here.
As for first lines, "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." from the Gunslinger: The Dark Tower Series
Jonus
Just a line to help Scher remembering her fave first line ever :angel:
"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." :D
edited because mentioned spoiler.
NOOO - I haven´t read the last book yet! I have tried not to read anything in the thread "Favorite last lines" out of fear for something like this.
I wonder if this happened because Scheherazade cursed the thread? What did she say in ancient tounge? "Thou shallt look and behold a spoiler? "
AHHH CRAP... sorry. I'll edit the post so no one else is spoiled.Quote:
Originally Posted by Isagel
Jonus
YIKES! I was spoiled the second time around, by the words in quote. :( :( :( :(
Oh darn. I´ll take the quote away.
Sorry EAP!
I am very fond of this first sentence:
"Like many another wild and anarchistic wanderer of our shattered times, I spend a lot of time asking myself questions that are officially classed as "nonsensical" by the Cambridge custodians of linguistic analysis."
"Wretched is he to whom the memories of Childhood bring only fear and sadness."
H.P. Lovecraft's "The Outsider"
My all time, over everything, favourite Story...Ever.
For its boldness and audacity, I like this opening line from Susan Elderkin's Sunset Over Chocolate Mountains:
'When he moved to the mountains of Arizona and set up home amongst the giant saguaros of the Sonoran Desert, Theobald Moon developed the habit of getting up early in the morning, peeing in a glass, and knocking it back in a few quick gulps while it was still warm and fresh.'
I saw imthefoolonthehill post something from Fight Club, but they apparently only posted a favorite line, since the first sentence of FC is:
"Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die."
And it happens to be my favorite.. heh. I mean, what a blunt way to start off a book? I don't really remember any lines from books, usually, since I have a hard time remembering actual text from the book. I'll know the story and why I liked it, but I probably couldn't quote much off the top of myhead.
Some good first lines:
"You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel If On A Winter's Night A Traveller. Relax."
- Italo Calvino, If On A Winter's Night A Traveller.
"A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare to it now."
- Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
"For whom is the Funhouse fun? Perhaps for lovers. For Ambrose it is a place of fear and confusion."
- John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
"The Grandmother didnt want to go to Florida."
- Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard To Find
"My dear friends, I knew you were faithful."
- Andre Gide, L'Immoraliste
"All of this happened while I was walking around starving in Christiana - that strange city no one escapes from until it has left its mark on him."
- Knut Hamsun, Hunger
"I will tell you something about stories,
[he said]
They arent just entertainment."
- Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony
"Since I cant tell this to anybody, I'm writing it, not just to sort it out for myself, but for someone nosy who'll rummage through my papers one day."
- Josip Novakovich, Salvation and Other Disasters
"It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him."
- Joseph Heller, Catch-22
"If you have a cold, you do not need to worry about reinfecting yourself with your lip balm."
- Bill McKibben, The Age Of Missing Information
"Ka-boom!"
- Joshua Clover, Madonna Anno Domini
There are only two first lines that I can recite from memory: Don Quixote's and García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Don Quixote's I memorized only because I studied hispanic literature and how could you not know that first sentence? The second one, I know because I simply love the book. It is the only book that I have read five times. If I had not read that book, my love for literature would have never been born. So, I did not memorize the line, I know it by heart in both English and Spanish. Oh, and what a last line too! But that's another topic...
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
Oh Jeez! Now we all gotta read that book! And what is the last line? (Don't do that to us!)
Actually, it's not the last line so much as it is the ending...a perfect circle.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sitaram
i like the first sentence in jane austen's pride and prejudice:it' a truth universally acknoledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune,must be in want of a wife.it is really a clever and rather impressive opening sentence,and it is also a concise summary of the whole plot.
i like first sentence of THE ART OF LIVING by a chines author, it is,
DISCONTENT IS DIVINE.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lara
I have to agree with you on this one! I loved A Tale of Two Cities! I reccomend that you read it! I just remember a funny line from "3rd Rock from the Sun" when Dick is told to read more, and he picks up this book and he reads this sentence and says, "Well if he can't make up his mind in the first sentence I'm not going to bother reading it!" Was really funny, but this book is really good, definately one of my favourites and it was all thanks to that first paragraph that I kept on reading!
I like the first sentence in Samuel Beckett's Malone Dies: I shall soon be quite dead at last in spite of all.
Okay, I know, this comes from a poem, but I can never stop loving John Keats' first sentence to Endymion:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
I like the opening sentence to Anna Karenina: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way..
I find it so beautiful and simple...
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scru- tinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
"This is what happened."
Stephen King's "Mist" from the collection of short stories "Skeleton Crew"
My other favorite that someone else already mentioned is from Catcher in The Rye. Let's you know right from the start this guy's got problems.
:goof: I finally managed to remember and decide two of my faviorate first lines ever
the opening to The Turmoil by Booth Tarkington (1915 and avialable online)
dont you just love that line??Quote:
There is a midland city in the heart of fair, open country, a dirty
and wonderful city nesting dingily in the fog of its own smoke.
and The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
also avilable online.Quote:
No man knew when the Shuttle began its slow and
heavy weaving from shore to shore, that it was held
and guided by the great hand of Fate.
Lara, dickens does it every time for opening sentences. "Jacob Marley was dead to begin with, dead as a dornail." I'm sure we all know which book this is. But what an eiry and somewhat hilariously morbid opening, i don't know if I should be laughing or creeped out at that. Merry Christmas
From Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place:"
It was very late and everyone had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light. It was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.
A master of nuance...
The first sentence does set the stage for the rest of the book.
(i.e. in Shelly's Frankenstein)
"You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanies the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings."
Of course, taken out of context, this sentence is really about the whole book. However, it is neither the Monster nor Victor Frankenstein himself who says this, but a sailor, who picked up Victor, writing to his sister, talking about his own supposed disaster. Each circle, in the book, if you will, relates the another story, or circle. As you leave the center of the story (a story trapped in a story trapped in a story), the 'right' and 'wrong' thing to do becomes more and more unclear. Morality becomes unclear. But, I suppose, I've strayed a little off of the original topic of a snatching first sentence. There is no use speaking of DeLacy, Victor, and the Monster, when they haven't even been introduced yet. To be fair, even Walton hasn't been introdueced yet, and he is the current speaker! Oh my.
"If I am out of my mind, it's alright with me, thought Moses Herzog."
- from Saul Bellow's Herzog
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." The opening sentence of Dickens' "David Copperfield". I think that's the perfect first sentence for any "autobiography". And I really enjoy it when I go back to the first sentence of a book after finishing it and its just so fitting that I have to smile and realize that that sentence carried the weight of the entire book.
Another great opening sentence is from Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner":
"I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975."
"Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small: to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born; on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader," - Oliver Twist
I looked through this whole thread and couldn't believe that my favorite wasn't mentioned. The best opening line in all of literature is from Dostoevsky's "Notes From Underground":
"I am a sick man...I am a wicked man. An unattractive man, I think my liver hurts."
(When I first read that I thought I'd picked up a copy of my unauthorized biography)
I don't know how you can possibly read that first line and then put the book down; well, I didn't.
Some honorable mention goes to Camus' "The Stranger" (which was mentioned before):
"Maman died today, or yesterday maybe, I don't know."
And as far as non-fiction what can possibly be more beautiful than this opening:
"Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires."
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incrudelity, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to the Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - Charles Dickens in A Tale Of Two Cities.