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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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 Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:32 pm Post subject: Best opening line (Literature) |
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Mine is without a doubt from Dostoevsky's 'Notes from the Underground.'
"I am a sick man... I am an angry man. An unatractive man. I think there is something wrong with my liver."
I know 'The Metamorphasis' is supposed to be a classic example too, but I don't agree.
Anyhow - what's your's? |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:39 pm Post subject: |
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I was forty five years old and I hadn't slept with a Women in over ten years.
Charles Bukowski. Women |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Fishead soup wrote: |
I was forty five years old and I hadn't slept with a Women in over ten years.
Charles Bukowski. Women |
Ah yeah, good choice. That was a great read too. Can't stand his poetry though (but then I don't like any poetry.). I love the ending lines too where he feeds the cat some tuna out of a can so believes he's still a decent person.
The opening to Banana Yoshimoto's 'Kitchen' is good too I recall, but I can't remember it exactly. Nice book, that. Quirky, touching and original. Ironic when someone's first work is the best they'll ever do. Hmm, I'm going to start a new thread about that now.... |
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thoreau
Joined: 21 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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Oryx and Crake by Margret Atwood.
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| Snowman wakes before dawn. He lies unmoving, listening to the tide coming in, wave after wave sloshing over the various barricades, wish-wash, wish-wash, the rhythm of heartbeat. He would so like to believe he is still asleep. |
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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This is not a book in the traditional sense. It is a spit in the face of God a prolonged insult.
Henry Miller. |
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missty
Joined: 19 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:20 pm Post subject: |
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Not a sentence, but this is my favourite opening paragraph:
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| Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. |
Lolita. Vladimir Nabokov. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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^^^^^ One of the best books ever written. Nice. I meant 'Tropics' not 'Lolita.' 'Lolita' is so overrated. But Irons was fab as HH in the film.
Last edited by DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP on Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:46 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Triban
Joined: 14 Jul 2009
Location: Suwon Station
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:22 pm Post subject: Re: Best opening line (Literature) |
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| DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP wrote: |
Mine is without a doubt from Dostoevsky's 'Notes from the Underground.'
"I am a sick man... I am an angry man. An unattractive man. I think there is something wrong with my liver."
I know 'The Metamorphosis' is supposed to be a classic example too, but I don't agree.
Anyhow - what's yours? |
Mine would have to be from Michael Cox, "The Meaning of Night".
�After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn's for an oyster supper.� |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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From the Tale Tell Heart
"TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them." |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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From Inverted World by Christopher Priest:
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| I had reached the age of 650 miles. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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| CentralCali wrote: |
From Inverted World by Christopher Priest:
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| I had reached the age of 650 miles. |
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Just read about that on Amazon, I think I'll order it. |
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ropebreezy
Joined: 27 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
Neuromancer, Williamn Gibson |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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| It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP wrote: |
| CentralCali wrote: |
From Inverted World by Christopher Priest:
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| I had reached the age of 650 miles. |
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Just read about that on Amazon, I think I'll order it. |
You should also order World Inside by Robert Silverberg. I wrote a great paper in university about both books describing how the societies are in extreme situations and thus have extreme punishments. |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009
Location: Electron cloud
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| Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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| ropebreezy wrote: |
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
Neuromancer, Williamn Gibson |
He must have been in Hampshire, England during November when he wrote that ha ha.
That was a great book too. Probably the first ever descripton of VR no? The way he makes you viualise it is great writing. Also loved the part aboout the dead wasps nest. |
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