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Revu2 · Oct 01, 2023 at 02:35 AM

Hi Ms D. I remember the afternoon (or was it morning)? when the Lit teacher at Yale Summer High School broke down the first line of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. "In the town there were 2 mutes and they were always together."

Tale of 2 Cities: "It was the best of times and the worst of times."

Chromos by Felipe Alfau: The moment one learns English, complications set in."

From Google Search AI:
The best opening lines can serve multiple functions, including:
Setting the scene
Introducing characters
Setting the tone
Piquing curiosity
Evoking shock
Introducing conflict
Starting in the middle of action
Provoking thought

Here are some famous opening lines from novels:
1984: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen". This line sets the tone for the dystopian world of the story.

Invisible Man: "I am an invisible man". This line is enigmatic and introduces a man who is ignored by society.

A Frolic of His Own: "Justice?—You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law".

The End of the Affair: "A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead".

Moby-D i c k: "Call me Ishmael".

Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".

Gravity's Rainbow: "A screaming comes across the sky".

Actually, technically, "Call me Ishmaei." Is after a chapter or 2 on, I dunno, the history of whaiing? Found this:

Yes, Chapter 1 ("Loomings") of the novel begins with Ishmael introducing himself. But the so-called first chapter is more like the book's third, thanks to two rambling introductory chapters respectively titled "Etymology" and "Extracts." In these sections, Melville introduces us to two fictitious researchers (a grammar school usher and a "sub-sub-librarian") who begin to educate us on cetology, the study of whales. Many novels begin with an epigraph, a little apropos quotation that precedes the opening lines. But these two chapters go way beyond that, supplying no fewer than eighty epigraphs. They foreshadow the novel's frequent digressions away from the nominal plot into the minutiae and lore of whales and whaling. And they're absolutely part of the novel proper, which means that the first line of Moby D*ck is not "Call me Ishmael," but rather this beauty: "The pale Usher—threadbare in coat, heart, body, and brain; I see him now." Hmm, maybe Melville would have sold more copies if he'd tightened that beginning up a little.

My note: HM started this way to mimic the long periods of boredom involved with this trade.

No pressure, R.