Doctor Mirabilis begins in a "...pitch-black, freezing stone corridor..."
-James Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), p. 19.
Black Easter begins:
"The room stank of demons."
-op. cit., p. 325.
A Case Of Conscience begins:
"The stone door slammed."
-op. cit., p. 531.
And, near the beginning of a Sandman story by Neil Gaiman, we read:
"There was a smell of magic somewhere, like the blue-sparks smell of ozone at a funfair."
-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: Preludes And Nocturnes (New York, 1995), p. 83, panel 2.
Among all of Anderson's many works, there is probably one with a comparable opening.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What you have been discussing here is what I might call "teaser paragraphs." That is, opening paragraphs designed by an author to both impart some information to readers and entice them to read further, to find out what the story is about. When done well by a skillful writer these teasers evokes images and concepts which continues to stand out clearly in the minds of many readers. A classic example of that is the opening paragraph of Tolkien's THE HOBBIT, with its famous opening sentence: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." And two favorite opening paragraphs from the works of Anderson are the beginnings of WE CLAIM THESE STARS and A CIRCUS OF HELLS.
Sean
Paul:
For what it's worth, Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords trilogy begins with the words, "In what felt to him like the first cold morning of the world, he groped for fire."
Andre Norton's Witch World opens, "The rain was a slantwise curtain across the dingy street, washing soot from city walls, the taste of it metallic on the lips of the tall, thin man who walked with a loping stride close to the buildings, watching the mouths of doorways, the gaps of alleys with a narrow-eyed intentness." Double attack here, not only the rain's metallic taste, but the fact that it's a "curtain" and thus impeding his sight.
Also from Norton: Judgment On Janus leads with, "Here even the sun was cold, just a glitter of light to hurt the eyes...."
Exiles of the Stars begins, "There was an odd haze in the room, or was it my eyes?" and later in that paragraph, "For the haze might be the visible emanation of that emotion anyone with the slightest esper talent could pick up clearly—the acrid taste, touch, smell, of fear."
The Zero Stone starts, "The dark was so thick in this stinking alley that a man might well put out his hand and catch shadows, pull them here or there, as if they were curtain stuff." The next two paragraphs include mention of the slippery feeling of slime underfoot, and the stickiness of something on the wall when he has to run his hand along it.
And from Lord of Thunder we have "Red ridges of mountains, rusted even more by the first sere breath of the Big Dry, cut across the lavender sky of Arzor north and east. At an hour past dawn, dehydrating puffs of breeze warned of the new days's scorching heat. There would be two hours—maybe three, yet—during which a man could ride, though in growing discomfort. Then he must lie up through the blistering fire of midday."
I think it's reasonable to say Norton opened with the senses, and unpleasant sensations in particular, a fair bit. Key Out of Time begins with the viewpoint character noting how very welcoming the sounds, scents, and general feel of the planet Hawaika are — before he veers to thinking such pleasantness promotes sloth.
As for Anderson, let me offer "Every planet in the story is cold—even Terra, though Flandry came home on a warm evening of northern summer. There the chill was in the spirit." A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows
David,
Very good.
Paul.
I think
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
counts.
Orwell used, sight temperature and sound, in that opening sentence.
Kaor, Jim!
And that "...striking thirteen" tell us military time was being used.
Ad astra! Sean
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