I want to talk about opening lines!

[lettered]

Whenever I think of first lines I think of Melanie in the Gone With The Wind movie. At one point she starts reading David Copperfield, and it goes something like this: "To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I am born."

That's actually the second line. The actual first line of David Copperfield is this: "Whether I shall

Comments

[lynnenne]

I think my favorite has to be the opening of Anna Karinina: "All happy families are alike, but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion." Because it's SO TRUE. (Also, I prefer the older translation to the newer one.)

For my own fic, I don't have a favorite opening line. But I do have a favorite closing line, from Sense Memory: "...like a pearl under the pile of mattresses where the princess sleeps, restless and bruised, dreaming of morning." I mulled that one over for a long time before I got it just right, and I probably spent more time on it than any other one I can think of. In general, I spend more time on closing lines than openings. I like the gut-punch endings. :)

[lettered]

Hm, I wonder what translation I got.

We got that first line at trivia night, and I had actually JUST started reading Anna, so it was really familiar, but at first I couldn't think of what it was from! At first I thought it was Dickens, but then I decided it was too depressing, and therefore must be Russian :o)

I was just reading somewhere that first lines are second-most in importance only to ending lines. The one from Sense Memory is awesome.

Not sure I believe it about the importance-thing though--first lines aren't that important to me at all. It's the second or third line that's important, because I will ALWAYS read past the first line. I won't always past the second ;o)

[raz0rgirl]

I love the opening line of William Gibson's Neuromancer: The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

It's funny, because what that means has changed in the past 20 or so years. It's also funny because people riff on that line/kid around with it all the time.

[lettered]

Oh, that's interesting. I hadn't heard that one before.

[anaross]

Oh, I loved David Copperfield. It feels like the most personal of the Dickens books.

[lettered]

I love it too! Although I've never really read any other Dickens.

[yin_again]

Bless your sweet heart. *loves*

[lettered]

I obviously need to read some of those fics

[angstpuppy]

My favorite first line ever?

"The magician's underwear has just been found in a cardboard suitcase floating in a stagnant pond on the outskirts of Miami."

Tom Robbins "Another Roadside Attraction"

[lettered]

HEE. Been meaning to read Tom Robbins.