Recently I read Neuromancer, the novel that is credited with launching the cyberpunk genre. The opening sentence of Neuromancer also seems to be widely acclaimed as of the great literary opening lines:
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
Here are some of my favorites:
It was a pleasure to burn. Fahrenheit 451
Elmer Gantry was drunk. Elmer Gantry
Howard Roark laughed. The Fountainhead
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want the truth. The Catcher in the Rye
By ten-forty-five, it was all over. The Moon is Down
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Nineteen Eighty-Four
These lines are mostly simple and almost summarize their respective texts in a nutshell. Holden's opening statement is long but that's about as close to a nutshell summary as Holden can get. The opening sentence to 1984 is just chilling. And, the more I think about it, 1984 was cyberpunk way before cyberpunk; and a whole lot more, obviously.
Edit - as I revisited this topic this morning I remembered that 1984 has a very memorable closing sentence.
memorable? Um, more like chilling. I wasn't fully coffeeiated yet.
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