# Why is "It was a dark and stormy night" so bad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-so-bad/256964 "2004-07-26T18:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-so-bad/256964/21 "2004-07-27T01:56:00Z")
Not long ago I actually read a story by Bulwer-Lytton, [_The Haunted and the Haunters_](http://www.bartleby.com/166/6.html) (1859), which H.P. Lovecraft described as “one of the best short haunted house tales ever written.” I would agree. Get past the more or less routine first half and things get weirder all the way to the surprise end. Way ahead of its time. ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-so-bad/256964/22 "2004-07-27T02:22:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It should be noted that this (without the dashed, semicoloned, and parenthetical parts) is also the opening sentence of Madeline L’Engle’s _A Wrinkle in Time_, a very good book. But of course, L’Engle was aware of the earlier usage and included it as a bit of a joke. Thank you, Chronos, I’d completely forgotten about that book. Loved it as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-so-bad/256964/23 "2004-07-27T03:20:17Z")
I have an old detective computer game lying around here somewhere. I believe the opening text as the game generates characters, locations, and the like is “It is a dark and stormy night. A murder is being committed.” ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-so-bad/256964/24 "2004-07-27T05:42:01Z")
> [@mouthbreather](#): > > Pronouns to go… > I’ll take half of the bottom row, Manduck. 😛 I have to object: great or not, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas is not a novel. I’ll take back one of those tongue-stickie-outies, if you don’t mind. Aw, what the hell, this one’s on the house 😛 ---
**Author:** ![NutMagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2004, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-so-bad/256964/25 "2004-07-27T11:27:52Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > There are some real doozies among this year’s [Bulwer-Lytton winners and runners-up.](http://www2.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2004.htm) Check them out. **Askia** Here are two of my favorites: \*The day was packing heat and cracking wise as the scorching sun torched the hot dry Santa Anas like fry on rice, crispy with a snap, crackle and pop, and poured into the surreal bowl of the Los Angeles Basin as the red winds rattled every dwelling from Bay City bungalow to Bel Air chateau like a china shop in a bullring, the whole stinking, teeming tinderbox as combustible as a drill sergeant at clown college, as unsettling as corn on the cob rationing at an Iowa Society picnic. Gordon Hauptfleisch San Diego, CA \* and \* The thing that goes back and forth inside the old grandfather clock swung like a pendulum. John Brugliera W. Lebanon, NH \* [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night-so-bad/256964.md?page=1)