What makes a great opening line? • Hacker News Board

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#101

Post by rectang » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 12:43 AM UTC

t-3 wrote: post #92

I read a lot of novels, but I can't recall any really great opening lines in particular. Rap though... "I sit alone in my four-cornered room staring at candles" "I'm waking up in the morning with problems on mind, motherfuck an education, and drug rehabilitation" "Damned if I do, damned if I don't, holla fuck the world with a chest full of smoke"

"Don’t call it a comeback"

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#102

Post by jamiek88 » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 12:44 AM UTC

dmje wrote: post #82

blowski wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep going. It’s an amazing story.

Cor yeh, requires some staying power but what an amazing, life changing read.

I used to think ‘life changing read’ was hyperbole or just plain bullshit until I read Crime and Punishment.

That masterpiece took me a long time to digest and did indeed change me.

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#103

Post by qiskit » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 12:58 AM UTC

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of york...

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#104

Post by shireboy » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 1:02 AM UTC

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#105

Post by tpoacher » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 1:02 AM UTC

"Your appointment to FEMA should be finalized within the week; I've already discussed the matter with the senator."

"I take it he was agreeable?"

"He didn't really have a choice."

"Has he been infected?"

"Oh yes. Most certainly. When I mentioned we could put him on the priority list for the Ambrosia vaccine, he was so willing it was almost pathetic."

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#106

Post by mym1990 » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 1:05 AM UTC

“The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live, will remember it.”

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#107

Post by furyofantares » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 1:11 AM UTC

#include

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#108

Post by hutzlibu » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 1:11 AM UTC

"The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders."

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#109

Post by dekhn » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 1:11 AM UTC

"There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made."

Re: What makes a great opening line?

#110

Post by w0mbat » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 1:11 AM UTC

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Unfortunately, television is digital now and dead channels are just black.