“They shot the white girl first.” That’s how Toni Morrison’s novel, Paradise, begins, and it’s a great example of an irresistible first line. Martha shares others sent in by listeners. She also reads from a Michael Cunningham essay about why a first line must be authoritative. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Irresistible First Lines”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
In a previous show, we talked about great first lines, those lines in novels that just grab you from the get-go.
And we asked you for examples of your favorites, and we got a ton of them.
Oh, boy.
And so I wanted to share some of these with you. They sort of separated themselves out into three categories.
The first category I’m calling the, huh, what just happened category.
The second one is unforgettable pictures.
And the third one is intensity of voice.
Let me give you some examples.
Okay.
Okay.
Yes, please.
Huh?
What just happened pile of emails.
They shot the white girl first.
Isn’t that just?
Yeah.
That’s so.
I’m going to read the rest of that book.
Oh, exactly.
Well, that’s the same thing that happened to me with all of these.
This is Toni Morrison’s novel, Paradise.
And Jim Adams from Capistrano Valley sent that in.
And he said that he first came across that in a creative writing class, that everybody was anticipating Toni Morrison’s next book.
And his teacher was saying, you got to look for her first line.
What’s it going to be?
And it turned out to be, they shot the white girl first.
Powerful.
How could you not go beyond that sentence, right?
Right.
And then there was the unforgettable picture category.
Steve Link in San Diego sent us, stately plump buck mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
Holy moly, what is that from?
That’s from the beginning of Ulysses.
Wonderful, wonderful.
Isn’t that great by James Joyce?
And then intensity of voice, finally.
A lot of you mentioned Call Me Ishmael, you know, from Moby Dick.
There’s a great essay on this by Michael Cunningham, who wrote The Hours.
And he talks about how the words Call Me Ishmael connote authority.
He says, Call Me Ishmael, three simple words.
What’s the big deal?
For one thing, they possess that most fundamental but elusive of all writerly qualities, authority.
As writers, we must, from our very opening sentence, speak with authority to our readers.
It’s a little like waltzing with a new partner for the first time.
Anyone who is able to waltz, to foxtrot or tango or perform any sort of dance that requires physical contact with a responsive partner knows that there is a first moment on the dance floor when you assess automatically whether the new partner in question can dance at all.
And if he or she can in fact dance, how well.
You know almost instantly whether you have a novice on your hands and that if you do, you’ll have to do a fair amount of work just to keep things moving.
We’re not done taking your recommendations for the best first lines of novels.
Sure, bring them on.
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