December 11, 2006
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Five First Sentences
I heartlessly stole this idea from handicap13, and I repeat his admonition: No googling!
My five fave first sentences are as follows. Note: these are not
all-time favourites, but are the ones I like best of the prose fiction
I have here with me while in school.My only other clue is that I move backwards in date of publication. Way, way backwards! Fasten your seatbelts:
1.
Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler’s pushing a gun in my
mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.
The very cool Avienta guessed FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk!
2. Against the stars a turtle passes, carrying four elephants on its shell.
Here again, we have the ubersmart Avienta, who guessed (close enough) a Discworld novel — in fact, it’s the first sentence of LAST CONTINENT by Terry Pratchett, which I have just finished reading aloud to my husband. (And yes, I do a great voice of DEATH.)3. Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss.
Beckzach05 got it right — THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, one of Ursula K. LeGuin’s finest works of science fiction.
4. The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of sails, and was at rest.
Beckzach05 strikes again! Joseph Conrad’s classic HEART OF DARKNESS. “The horror! The horror!”5. There was a man called Ketil Flat-Nose, who was the son of Bjorn Buna.
I did not expect anybody to be right about this one. It’s from Laxdæla Saga.
No one knows who wrote this saga so many hundreds of years ago, but it
was probably a woman! Therefore, it’s my favourite saga.Thanks to all the smarties who gave this a shot. It’s a fun little game.
CG
Comments (10)
I can get all five of them….get them all wrong! I have no clue! But there must be a theme here….the middle three all have to do with the ocean. I am going to take a couple of WILD guesses, obviously not googled.
The first one sounds like…I dunno…Jack Kerouc? :laugh:
I will post the correct guesses!
OK – I googled. #1 I could possibly have known. #2, 3 and 5 I have never even heard of. #4 – I was actually going to guess Lord Jim!!!!!!!! NO KIDDING!…thats kind of close, no?
Please replace “thats” with “that’s”.
:lol:
Hmm… the first could possibly maybe be Fight Club? And the second is something Discworld-related? Other than that I have no earthly idea.
Also, I must say that Ketil Flat-Nose is one heckuva cool name.
I can get all five. No google for me either. Since 1 and 2 have already been answered, I’ll start with number 3.
3) It’s the opening line of Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula LeGuin. A very interesting read, though it’s been years since I’ve pulled it off my shelf.
4) Opening line for Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad. Had to read that one for English class in High School.
5) This one took me a minute. Though, I recognized it. A family I am friends with think they are of Viking decent, and studied up on Viking genealogy. That’s a line from Genealogy Within the Viking World, by Sir Egil Nialsson. It’s only chance that I remembered that one.
I love Terry Pratchet!
Wow, I guessed three of them right off! :goodjob:
I coud have never done it without googling. I just don’t do well reading certain topics or types of books.
Thanks for popping by and I hope your exams are going well. It’s not the worst paper that I’ve written, and I was quite proud (and certain that I’d got the character of Milton’s Eve right) when my g/f read her entrance and was thorougly disgusted. Sigh, I have to wait ages until I can study either Anglo-Saxon or Norse … I’ll continue to be jealous until fall of next year. Best wishes.
just wanted to drop by to say… happy merry christmas! xoxox