# Famous First Words **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 1, 2000, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588 "2000-02-01T08:14:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/201 "2000-02-04T16:00:00Z")
TomH: > [@](#): > > \*\*Da Ace, > > I already had a guess at DA7. Is it not _Ringworld_? If not, it’s _Ringworld Engineers_. Both Larry Niven. I must have missed your first post; _Ringworld_ it is. > [@](#): > > DA12 = _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_, Douglas Adams. Also quite right. * * * …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/202 "2000-02-04T16:03:00Z")
DA10 is Armor, right? * * * You say “cheesy” like that’s a **BAD** thing. ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/203 "2000-02-04T16:24:00Z")
Is DA9 _Starship Troopers_? ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/204 "2000-02-04T17:19:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by TomH: > **Is DA9 _Starship Troopers_?** ## Nope, but you’re very very close. Look at that batch of quotes again (that’s all I can say without giving it away). …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/205 "2000-02-04T17:21:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Sealemon88: > \*\*DA10 is Armor, right? > \*\* ## Nope. Ask **TomH** what book it is. He should know. …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/206 "2000-02-04T17:27:00Z")
**DA11** is one of the Foundation series, _Foundation_ if I’m not mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/207 "2000-02-04T17:40:00Z")
Hmmm. Sounds like DA10 = _Starship Troopers_. I still don’t know about DA9, though. Two WAGs: one of the Stainless Steel Rat books or _Bill, the Galactic Hero_ by Harry Harrison. ---
**Author:** ![neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neuro-trash_grrrl)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/208 "2000-02-04T17:48:00Z")
Unless I missed something, nobody has gotten this one yet: NTG6: The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. * * * An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille. ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/209 "2000-02-05T06:08:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by pluto: > **DA11 is one of the Foundation series, _Foundation_ if I’m not mistaken.** ## It is indeed. …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/210 "2000-02-05T06:10:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by TomH: > \*\*Hmmm. Sounds like > > DA10 = _Starship Troopers_. > > I still don’t know about DA9, though. Two WAGs: one of the Stainless Steel Rat books or _Bill, the Galactic Hero_ by Harry Harrison.\*\* You’re getting close; it is a book written in reaction to _Starship Troopers_, by a man who actually went to war. * * * …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/211 "2000-02-05T06:13:00Z")
NTG: “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad ---
**Author:** ![neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neuro-trash_grrrl)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/212 "2000-02-05T06:20:00Z")
Bing! And “Heart of Darkness” is correct. And, just for the record, so were “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, “The Great Gatsby”, “The Martian Chronicles” and “The Satanic Verses”. I would also like to note for the record that nobody has gotten NTG1 yet, but since I didn’t have an exact quote, I’m not going to press the issue. * * * An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/213 "2000-02-05T06:28:00Z")
There seems to be a pronounced bias towards works of fiction on this thread. So here’s the opening lines from ten works of non-fiction, all well known works of history: LN1: “After the end of the World War of 1914 there was a deep conviction and almost universal hope that peace would reign in the world.” LN2: “It is now almost 2000 years since the birth of Jesus Christ set in motion the chain of events which led to the creation of the Christian faith and its diffusion throughout the world.” LN3: “This is a book about stupidity, doltishness, muddleheadedness, incapacity, hedetude, vacuity, shortsightedness, fatuity, idiocy, folly, giddiness, desipience.” LN4: “I have not been in a battle; nor near one, nor heard one from afar, nor seen the aftermath.” LN5: “The future has always been the great treasure-house of meaning. People everywhere, dissatisfied with naked experience, have clothed the present with signs to come.” LN6: “Mr. Beale had not brought the warrant until Sunday evening but by Wednesday morning, before dawn outlined its high windows, the great hall at Fotheringhay was ready.” LN7: “On the morning of January 27, 1945, there was an air of restrained excitement among the 10,000 Allied occupants of Stalag Luft III (Air Prisoner of War Camp) at Sagan, only 100 air miles southeast of Berlin.” LN8: “Seamen have always dwelt on the fringes of settled society. The Greeks hesitated whether to count them among the living or the dead, and eighteenth-century Englishmen were not much better informed.” LN9: “From the west-facing window of the room in which Meriwether Lewis was born on August 18, 1774, one could look out at Rockfish Gap, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, an opening to the West that invited exploration.” LN10: “At the end of the year 1492 most men in Western Europe felt exceedingly gloomy about the future. Christian civilization appeared to be shrinking in area and dividing into hostile units as its spheres contracted.” ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/214 "2000-02-05T06:52:00Z")
Da Ace, Aha! That’ll be _The Forever War_, Joe Haldeman’s (?sp) post-Vietnam attack on Heinlein’s gung-ho, Boy’s Own Stories account of war. Little Nemo, LN1 = Winston Churchill’s history of the Second World War LN3 = J K Galbraith’s book about financial disasters (specifically, “bubbles”), the title of which I can’t remember. _Great Financial Disasters_? LN4 = _The Face of Battle_ by John Keegan. If you liked that, you should read _The Great War and Modern Memory_ by Paul Fussell. LN7 = _The Great Escape_, don’t know who by. LN9 = _Lewis & Clarke_ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/215 "2000-02-04T19:24:00Z")
**Tengu** : Correctamundo. It is indeed the opening to _It_, by Stephen King. **TomH** : I bow before your amassed knowledge and relfexes; you are correct upon all counts. I’ll give the answer to JC3 later this evening should no one get it. * * * JMCJ This is not a sig. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/216 "2000-02-04T19:41:00Z")
Any mystery fans out there? Try this one, considered by some to be the best opening line of any mystery: “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” * * * Jodi _Fiat Justitia_ ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/217 "2000-02-04T20:07:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by jodih: > \*\*Any mystery fans out there? Try this one, considered by some to be the best opening line of any mystery: > > “When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.”\*\* Ooh, that’s by James Crumley, but I can’t remember if it was _The Last Good Kiss_ or _The Wrong Case_. * * * …but when you get blue, and you’ve lost all your dreams, there’s nothing like a campfire and a can of beans! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/218 "2000-02-04T20:16:00Z")
**pluto** _AW9 is easy for me, anyway, and a couple of other regular posters too. The Book of Mormon_ Correct. (Though isn’t it cheating if you’re a former bishop?) **cher3** _AW15 must be “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James. That could be counted as one of his more straitforward sentences, though._ Correct. Are you saying that Henry James’ sentences are convolvoluted? I admire his mastery of the English language. _T3: ‘There was a wall.’ (I’ll be kind of impressed if anyone gets this one…^\_\_^) The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. (I cheated on this one, but I’m not telling how.)_ OK, how? I’ve read that book probably three times, and I never would have guessed it from that small opening sentence. By the way, this one remains unguessed. _AW21 I. Ferryslip. Three gulls wheel above the broken boxes, orangerinds, spoiled cabbage heads that heave between the splintered plank walls, the green waves spume under the round bow as the ferry, skidding on the tide, crashes, gulps the broken water, slides, settles slowly into the slip. Handwinches whirl with jingle of chains. Gates fold upwards, feet step out across the crack, men and women press through the manuresmelling wooden tunnel of the ferry-house, crushed and jostling like apples fed down a chute into a press._ hint: American Author, novel from 1920s. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2000, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/219 "2000-02-04T21:04:00Z")
AW, no, I wouldn’t say James’ sentences were convoluted, exactly. More like intricate. There is a brilliant parody of his style by James Thurber (who also greatly admired him), but I can’t remember the title offhand. Okay, I’ll spill. I just thought that sentence sounded sci-fi or fantasy-ish, so I went to a site that lists first lines of famous works (by type) and was lucky enough to find it after a few minutes. I haven’t actually read it, which is really why I called it cheating. I’ve read all the others I guessed. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2000, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588/220 "2000-02-05T00:48:00Z")
DA ACE – I’m _very_ impressed! Yep, it’s James Crumley’s _The Last Good Kiss_ – my favorite mystery, by the way. * * * Jodi _Fiat Justitia_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-first-words/13588.md?page=12)