Comments | saintfuzzball: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

saintfuzzball

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Mar 10, 2005 16:43

For those of you who don't know it I have a thing for first sentences. First sentences of books, of short stories, of articles, of songs, of a lot of things. Mainly I try to notice the first sentences of novels and stories. I like to see what authors do with them. I don't pretend that there is a certain way a first sentence should look or act, just ( Read more... )

first sentences

Comments 7

neonsheep March 11 2005, 05:21:46 UTC

You're question is a toughy; considering whether your definition of a sentence is dependent upon is being complete and grammatically correct. If so, then the way you have shown it is in fact the whole first sentence. If you count the end of a sentence as the placement of a period - then, no.

One of my personal favorites:
"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness." Vladimir Nabokov - Speak, Memory (the best autobiography EVER, by the way)

hmmm squeevey March 11 2005, 18:08:33 UTC

"Call Me Ishmael" even though it is starting to get revised out.

Re: hmmm neonsheep March 12 2005, 03:45:43 UTC

Revised out? Huh? How so?

Re: hmmm squeevey March 14 2005, 17:39:14 UTC

http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/as/Literature/Moby-Dick/amlit.Moby-Dick.html

Re: hmmm neonsheep March 14 2005, 18:13:23 UTC

Oh, that makes sense. Actually, (I remember boring saintfuzzball to death with this junior year when I did a term paper about it) the whole point to Moby Dick is trying to understand the intent behind man's search for meaning (the white whale itself is supposed to be the great "signified" that humans are attempting to place a "signifier" upon).

Yet, I still like the "Call me Ishmael" opening - not only because it's such a classic but also because the line itself lends the book towards the above interpretation. Notice how it isn't "I am Ishmael" or "My name is Ishmael." The fact that you never really know if that's really his name bases the novel from the start on floating signifiers.

neonsheep March 21 2005, 03:27:56 UTC

Found new ones!

"Balls!" Charles Bukowski - Hot Water Music

"Five straight days she spent in front of the television, staring at crumbled banks and hospitals, whole blocks of stores in flames, severed rail lines and expressways." Haruki Murakami - After the Quake

P.S. If you have the chance, buy and read a Murakami book. He's so good it's really scary. His new one is Kafka on the Shore.

P.P.S. The Murakami first line above is actually the second best one from a Japanese author that I could find. The best first line is in Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami, but I refrained from putting it here since the paragraph is so depressing that it makes a William S. Burroughs book feel oddly uplifting. You can read it here.

saintfuzzball March 21 2005, 19:23:09 UTC

You know I don't think I've ever read a Japanese novel. I did notice that there seem to be more of them being translated and published. I just never got over the idea that, being a completely different basis for the idea of their written language, it would translate well. It always seemed like you would never get the true intention. Then again how often do you get that out of English language books? I guess I'll have to give them a shot. Murakami it shall be for me then.
I mean, hell, that "After the Quake" sentence is amazing and I think I've heard of Kafka on the Shore.

You know, I should have known from the title what I was getting into when I clicked on the book link. All I can say is holy jesus fuck.