Hypoxia
doesn't watch television
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2013
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The 25 Best Opening Lines in Western Literature
1. “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
2. “It was a pleasure to burn.”
3. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
4. “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom.”
5. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”
6. “Mama died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.”
8. “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
9. “They’re out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.”
11. “Call me Ishmael.”
12. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
14. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
16. “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”
17. “It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
18. “I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I think my liver is diseased.”
23. “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”
24. “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.”
25. “The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling.”
I left out the loinger ones. So sue me.
1. “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
2. “It was a pleasure to burn.”
3. “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
4. “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom.”
5. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”
6. “Mama died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.”
8. “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
9. “They’re out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.”
11. “Call me Ishmael.”
12. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
14. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”
16. “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”
17. “It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
18. “I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I think my liver is diseased.”
23. “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”
24. “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.”
25. “The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling.”
I left out the loinger ones. So sue me.