“First lines set the reader on track – but not always the right one. John Sutherland ponders the enigma of beginnings”
An interesting literary read. An article about first lines of novels and related things.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/aug/26/featuresreviews.guardianreview29
( The title of the piece is a reference to the first line of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, “Call me Ishmael.”, which is one of the most famous first lines in the history of literature. I saw a comedian many years ago, I don’t remember his name, and I haven’t been able to find it, who told one of the funnier jokes I’ve ever heard, especially of a literature and literary theme— (paraphrased from faulty memory) ‘I like to go into bookstores and in each copy of “Moby Dick”, I open to the first page, the first line, and put a comma after “Call me”.’ (if anyone ever does this, I hope they use a pencil, and not a pen — this is something one of the characters in my feature-length film, “Assassinators”, does — I don’t know if that is kosher, or I need to get permission, or what… although the film, unfortunately, will probably never be made….))
