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Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: arkhym on 23 Mar 2009, 15:07

Title: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: arkhym on 23 Mar 2009, 15:07: When I was at school studying english Literature my teacher once said that one of the most important parts of any book, play or poem is the opening line. With this line you could lose or gain your readers. Now I'm not sure I agree with him completely but I do remember my favourite opening line from a book. It was from The Gunslinger by Stephen King:

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed"
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: negative creep on 23 Mar 2009, 16:41: "Call me Ishmael."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Avec on 23 Mar 2009, 16:48: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 23 Mar 2009, 16:56: "we were somewhere just outside Barstow, in the desert, when the drugs began to take hold"
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: KickThatBathProf on 23 Mar 2009, 17:01: "I sent one boy to the gaschamber at Huntsville"
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: De_El on 23 Mar 2009, 18:03: "Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach."

"My first experience with junk was during the War, around 1944 or 1945."

"Vaughan died yesterday in his last car crash."

"They gave me back my full Christian name and my old clothes and three miserable old Viceroy Golds."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Ford Prefect on 23 Mar 2009, 18:04: "One time my cousin Walter got this cat stuck up his ass"
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Inlander on 23 Mar 2009, 18:55: "The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Nodaisho on 23 Mar 2009, 19:00: It was a pleasure to burn.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Yakob on 23 Mar 2009, 19:16: Quote from: Nodaisho on 23 Mar 2009, 19:00
It was a pleasure to burn.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Dazed on 23 Mar 2009, 20:24: So that ignorant, thick-lipped, evil whorehopping editor phones me up and says;
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Melodic on 23 Mar 2009, 23:55: It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: look out! Ninjas! on 24 Mar 2009, 02:56: Pretty much everything on this page here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulwer-Lytton_Fiction_Contest

Of particular note is this one:
"The bone-chilling scream split the warm summer night in two, the first half being before the scream when it was fairly balmy and calm and pleasant for those who hadn't heard the scream at all, but not calm or balmy or even very nice for those who did hear the scream, discounting the little period of time during the actual scream itself when your ears might have been hearing it but your brain wasn't reacting yet to let you know."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: michaelicious on 24 Mar 2009, 09:04: Quote from: negative creep on 23 Mar 2009, 16:41
"Call me Ishmael."

"Call me Jonah."

Also:

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

I like how Kafka cuts right to the chase a lot of the time.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: negative creep on 24 Mar 2009, 09:18: Where's that from?
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: imapiratearg on 24 Mar 2009, 09:22: "All this happened, more or less."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: celticgeek on 24 Mar 2009, 09:30: "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: rynne on 24 Mar 2009, 10:22: Hugh Laurie, The Gun Seller: "Imagine that you have to break someone's arm."

HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu: "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. "
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: celticgeek on 24 Mar 2009, 11:20: “A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.”
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: mberan42 on 24 Mar 2009, 12:55: Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Cartilage Head on 24 Mar 2009, 13:07: Are you Henry?
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: michaelicious on 24 Mar 2009, 14:09: Quote from: negative creep on 24 Mar 2009, 09:18
Where's that from?

"Call me Jonah" is the opening line of Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: negative creep on 24 Mar 2009, 17:36: Ah, thanks! Is it good?
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: E. Spaceman on 24 Mar 2009, 17:46: it is excellent
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 24 Mar 2009, 17:51: It's probably my favorite book by him.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 24 Mar 2009, 18:00: you obviously haven't read Man Without A Country because if you had, it would be your favorite.

because it is my favorite by him and everyone has the exact same opinion as me.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 24 Mar 2009, 18:01: I have not in fact read Man Without A Country, but at your recommendation (and by virtue of having been written by Vonnegut) I'll move it towards the top of my reading list.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 24 Mar 2009, 18:05: get it.

it changed my life. Vonnegut was already a contender for my favorite author before i read that book but that pretty much ensured his place at the top, for me.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Reed on 24 Mar 2009, 18:53: Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 24 Mar 2009, 18:05
it changed my life. Vonnegut was already a contender for my favorite author before i read that book but that pretty much ensured his place at the top, for me.

This! It's a fantastic book, even when compared to his other greats like Cat's Cradle
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: negative creep on 24 Mar 2009, 19:00: Okay okay! I'll read them both some time. Soon, hopefully.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: fozmo on 24 Mar 2009, 20:19: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: David_Dovey on 25 Mar 2009, 02:38: Man I wish people mentioned what books they were quoting because the ones I do not know I want to read.

Anyway:

"I opened my eyes to see the rat taking a piss in my coffee mug. It was a huge brown bastard; had a body like a turd with legs and beady black eyes full of secret rat knowledge."

Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: negative creep on 25 Mar 2009, 07:13: Quote from: negative creep on 23 Mar 2009, 16:41
"Call me Ishmael."

It's from Moby Dick.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: KickThatBathProf on 25 Mar 2009, 09:42: No fuckin way
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Nodaisho on 25 Mar 2009, 16:50: "There is no reason good can't triumph over evil, if only angels will get organized along the lines of the mafia."

edit: that's from the aforementioned A Man Without a Country, by Vonnegut.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Inlander on 25 Mar 2009, 17:16: Dovey, mine was from the Knife of Never Letting Go (http://www.amazon.com/Knife-Never-Letting-Go-Walking/dp/0763639311/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238026499&sr=1-1) by Patrick Ness.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: KickThatBathProf on 25 Mar 2009, 17:22: Mine was from No Country For Old Men
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: De_El on 25 Mar 2009, 18:16: Quote from: De_El on 23 Mar 2009, 18:03
"Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach." Watchmen, Moore, Gibson

"My first experience with junk was during the War, around 1944 or 1945." Junky, Burroughs

"Vaughan died yesterday in his last car crash." Crash, J.G. Ballard

"They gave me back my full Christian name and my old clothes and three miserable old Viceroy Golds." How the Hula Girl Sings, Joe Meno
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: negative creep on 25 Mar 2009, 22:37: Quote from: KickThatBathProf on 25 Mar 2009, 09:42
No fuckin way

It's true, I'm tellin' ya
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: RubyTuesday9 on 25 Mar 2009, 23:22: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo..." A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: BeoPuppy on 26 Mar 2009, 01:01: Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening Hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Jimmy the Squid on 26 Mar 2009, 01:12: "The regular early morning yell of horror was the sound of Arthur Dent waking up and suddenly remembering where he was." - Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams.

"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression 'as pretty as an airport'." - The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul also by Douglas Adams.

"Mommy... is screaming. Her screams are... yummy. Daddy... is next." - Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: KharBevNor on 26 Mar 2009, 09:12: "The Sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel"

- William Gibson - Neuromancer
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: ViolentDove on 26 Mar 2009, 21:25: What Khar said.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Nodaisho on 27 Mar 2009, 00:21: Slightly ruined by modern TVs showing blue on dead channels, but still a good one. I heard that Gaiman paid tribute to that at some point in Neverwhere, but I couldn't find it. Anyone know for sure?
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: jimbunny on 30 Mar 2009, 19:39: For some inexplicable reason, Bono reads it out loud in the documentary No Maps for These Territories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Maps_for_These_Territories), which is about William Gibson.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: scarred on 30 Mar 2009, 20:21: (http://scifitvgeek.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/13_trash.jpg)

"Yep... that went well."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Yayniall on 09 Apr 2009, 12:53: "This drum machine utterly confounds me"
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: SirJuggles on 09 Apr 2009, 14:11: This is the bright candlelit room where the lifetimers are stored - shelf upon shelf of them, squat hourglasses, one for every living person, pouting their fine sand from the future into the past.

Mort, by Terry Pratchett
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Uber Ritter on 09 Apr 2009, 20:45: "I am a sick man, I am a wicked man..."

"1    Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
2    mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
3    ché la diritta via era smarrita."

"Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles the son of Peleus,
the destructive rage that sent countless ills on the Achaeans..."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: PunkRockScience on 11 Apr 2009, 17:14: "The night before he went to London, Richard Mayhew was not enjoying himself." -Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere.

"A mile below the lowest cloud, rock breaches water and the sea begins." -China Mieville, The Scar
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: David_Dovey on 15 Apr 2009, 04:20: Oh shit that reminds me

"It begins, as most things begin, with a song."

-Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Dollface on 15 Apr 2009, 04:36: We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: David_Dovey on 15 Apr 2009, 05:03: Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 23 Mar 2009, 16:56
"we were somewhere just outside Barstow, in the desert, when the drugs began to take hold"
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Dollface on 15 Apr 2009, 14:09: I dont read what i do!
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: WriterofAllWrongs on 20 Apr 2009, 15:25: To subvert this, the worst opening line in the history of books is probably from Ethan Frome.

Quote from: Edith Wharton
If you know anything about Starkfield, Massachusetts, you know about the post office.

Oh joy! What a book this will be!
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: RubyTuesday9 on 23 Apr 2009, 02:11: Quote from: tender on 15 Apr 2009, 20:04
This is not for you.

Is that the opening line for House of Leaves? I can't place it and it's driving me crazy!
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: el_loco_avs on 23 Apr 2009, 04:42: I think it is.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: actreal on 23 Apr 2009, 04:52: Quote
Space...the final frontier.
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: spoon_of_grimbo on 23 Apr 2009, 10:49: Quote from: RubyTuesday9 on 23 Apr 2009, 02:11
Quote from: tender on 15 Apr 2009, 20:04
This is not for you.

Is that the opening line for House of Leaves? I can't place it and it's driving me crazy!

that book is fucking EPIC. i was gonna look up the opening line and post it here, but i've lost the book :cry:
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Kugai on 24 Apr 2009, 01:15: "He's a Mad Scientist and I'm his Beautiful Daughter"
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Ford Prefect on 24 Apr 2009, 15:44: "The night was humid."
Title: Re: Favourite Opening Lines
Post by: Inlander on 27 Apr 2009, 17:52: From A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne:

Quote
- They order, said I, this matter better in France -

Of course the same book also has one of the most famous (and, if you read the whole chapter, hilarious) closing lines in English literature:

Quote
So that when I stretch'd out my hand, I caught hold of the Fille de Chambre's

Actually, come to think of it Tristram Shandy's opening line is pretty good, too:

Quote
I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me;