11–20 of 154 posts
And obvious trait of all those is too much postmodernism. Instead of trying to lay out a story about human beings, books start name-dropping or being smart from the line 1. Trying to claim too much context that they don't own but obviously going to exploit.
And obvious trait of all those is too much postmodernism. Instead of trying to lay out a story about human beings, books start name-dropping or being smart from the line 1. Trying to claim too much context that they don't own but obviously going to exploit.
This is a contest where contestants intentionally set out to write the worst opening sentence possible.
Dishonorable Mention (2019): > As they sprinted together down the echoing, looping ramp of the deserted Guggenheim Museum, closely pursued by three swarthy members of the resolutely vicious Cannelloni gang, square-jawed British Royal Marine art historian/world's deadliest sniper John Savage and his voluptuous young modern art critic/Navajo linguist Samantha Silver cursed architect/interior designer/writer/educator Fr…
That is a) SUPERB, and b) a perfect example of the Dan Brown Code[1]. [1] http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.h...
Dishonorable Mention (2019): > As they sprinted together down the echoing, looping ramp of the deserted Guggenheim Museum, closely pursued by three swarthy members of the resolutely vicious Cannelloni gang, square-jawed British Royal Marine art historian/world's deadliest sniper John Savage and his voluptuous young modern art critic/Navajo linguist Samantha Silver cursed architect/interior designer/writer/educator Fr…
That is a) SUPERB, and b) a perfect example of the Dan Brown Code[1]. [1] http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.h...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-r...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a contest where contestants intentionally set out to write the worst opening sentence possible.
And what makes it even funnier is that they all sound like they could be from a real Dan Brown novel.
Well...there's a quite a few nuggets of prose in Mindstar Rising that wouldn't be out of place in this list. Thankfully his writing improved quite a bit, and/or he employed better editors.
Dishonorable Mention (2019): > As they sprinted together down the echoing, looping ramp of the deserted Guggenheim Museum, closely pursued by three swarthy members of the resolutely vicious Cannelloni gang, square-jawed British Royal Marine art historian/world's deadliest sniper John Savage and his voluptuous young modern art critic/Navajo linguist Samantha Silver cursed architect/interior designer/writer/educator Fr…
That is a) SUPERB, and b) a perfect example of the Dan Brown Code[1]. [1] http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.h...
The link currently points to the 2019 winners, the correct one is: https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2022
The opening sentence of (what would be) the worst novel is different to the worst opening sentence of a novel.
The Children's & Young Adult Literature Winner for 2022 [2] is actually a good opening sentence:
> Three bears arrived at their den to discover a yellow haired girl sleeping, and as she was neither too hot nor too cold, neither too soft nor too hard, but just right, they ate her.