4 ms·
"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought
by ethbr1 2y ago
"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."
That's still a pretty strong start. Especially for literature of the time.
- themaninthedark 2y agoI was a voracious reader and was signed up for honors English Lit. The teacher gave us a test on Moby Dick, one of the questions was what was the main character's name. I didn't remember because it only appears right there at the beginning..... Still pretty bitter about that question.
- ethbr1 2y agoMy favorite literary hack on that was Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, where he plays on your assumption that an intelligence that is human-like is actually human-shaped. It's a decent chunk of the book (told from their perspective!) before he starts sprinkling in things that make you realize they aren't actually human-shaped (or thinking) at all.