Favourite First Lines

[purplecthulhu]

A meme borrowed from papersky... First lines from favourite novels...

The only one I can remember without checking the original is:

'The sky was the colour of a TV tuned to a blank channel', Neuromance, William Gibson.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Which I always remember via:

"The TV was the colour of a blank channel tuned to Sky."

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Which is what I used to introduce a con report of Contrivance, the 1989 Eastercon...

[drplokta]

Actually, you need to check the original. It's "The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel." Which didn't mean bright blue at the time.

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Apparently Gibson was rather amused by this change, and felt it actually added to the book by enhancing the technological imagery he was deliberately using for the "meatspace" sections of the novel.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I guess this shows the editing and compression ability of a porr memory. Rats!

[handslive.livejournal.com]

Heh. Our friend Andrew used to say, "The sky was the colour of a TV tuned to late night CBC."

[nlindq.livejournal.com]

Neuromancer was the first one to occur to me as well, and I wouldn't consider it to be one of my favourite novels.

I guess the vivid imagery sticks with you.