>Call me Ishmael
Why is it considered to be the best opening line of a book ever?
What makes a good opening line?
Also, can you recommend books which are similar to Moby Dick?
tells ya everything you need to know about the narrator
his name is Ishmael and he's modest about it, bada bing bada boom we're done here
>>7790554
it establishes that the narrator is giving you a fake name and you have to wonder what if anything he tells you is true
it adds an ambiguous spice to the flavor of the fare
>>7790554
Try books by Cormac McCarthy, Ernest Hemingway, or the KJV
>>7790554
It's not the best opening line, it's a famous opening line that starts the best beginning paragraph.
It's a fake name with a biblical allusion. The story of Ishmael reflects Melvilles life making the book take on an autobiographical shade.
>>7790554
>hurr durr i hate this whale
Shit taste OP
Plebs continue picking up Moby Dick in the book store because
>muh great american novel
>i read BIG books sometimes such a nerd xD
>pshh... I can read that
Three words later, they get tired, confused, and bored.
They walk away with a shiny new meme that other "Readers" also remember from their sentence-long stint in Melville's world.
Other close-minded, Ameritard opinions of mine:
Moby Dick has the greatest final sentence of all American lit, second to
Gatsby.
>>7790554
the whole book is a mirror.
>>7790870
Explain
>>7790923
it was just plain enough to be considered a book about a whale, and just complex enough to suggest some sort of metaphor. in the end, no conclusive metaphor was reached, and when left to think for himself, Melville refuses to conclude it for you. if anything, the whale's apparent escape was evidence of this, that you'll die trying to find the answer, you'll die by your obsessions, and your obsessions are yours alone, now that Ahab has been swallowed by his own. Even the first line has a vast swath possible interpretations, and the more i hear about it, the more unique they seem to each of the people. My personal experiences with the book left me feeling empty, as I am often very sensitive to emotional and mental suggestions of the author, looking into a mirror as a mirror will only leave me feeling empty. obviously this is my interpretation, and very probably rife with nonsense, but that's what i took from it.
>>7790832
so the answer to his question was....
call me maybe :)
>>7790554
>Why is it considered to be the best opening line of a book ever?
But that isn't from The Iliad.
literally right in the middle of the whale species chapters now
fuck this book
Because a really good intro paragraph comes after this opening line, which flows nicely when you read it. The sentence sets the tone of it and the whole book. It's like when you're playing a musical piece, the first tone is really important beacause it has to establishes the tone and grip the audience.
You get the biblical allusion of the name? Ishmael is the outcast son of Abraham, half-brother of Isac and the father of Arabs.
The book is about nothing and everything. It's a book about life, to put it simply. The whole whailing thing is like a crystal through which life in it's multiplicity is refracted. It's a novel that tries to express life.
I think that Melville explicitly stated somewhere that it isn't a metaphor in any way and thus it shouldn't be interpreted as a metaphor, even a deliberatly unsuccessful metaphor, so that evetyone gets his own little metaphors from the book.
>>7791233
yeah fuck cetology xD
>>7790554
>considered best opening line of a book ever
Gonna need a source there homeboy, cause Tale of Two Cities is easily more recognizable.
Proust's opening line is way better.
"For a long time, I used to go to bed early."
>>7790554
>the best opening line of a book ever?
Seriously? By whom?
It's a short sentence that quickly pulls you into the narration, ok, but not that special.
My favorite is:
>"My name is Walter Siti. Like everyone."
>>7790554
Another opening line/paragraph that, in peoples opinion, revivals 'Call me Ishmael' is from The Adventures of Augie March by Bellow. It go like dis:
I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that somber city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent.
>>7790809
>Call me Ishmael. I hate that whale.
Hmmmm, might work.
>>7791700
by a lot of people
this is definitely a thing
>>7790980
but final is amazing
>>7791695
oh yes, this whole opening about waking up and forgeting where you are is magical
