Fannish Friday: Favorite Beginnings

[lirazel]

Tell me about a narrative of any kind--TV, movie, book, podcast, whatever--that has a beginning that just grabbed you. Especially if, once you've experienced the whole thing, you appreciate the beginning even more!

Some that I think of:

+ Octavia Butler's Kindred. When I pick up a new book, I like to read the opening matter--dedications, any author's notes, epigraphs the first few lines--as soon as I get it, even if I'm not going to read the book right away. I tried to do that with this book and...it did not work. I read the opening paragraph and I could not stop. I stayed up all night reading that book and it was totally worth it. Epitome of in media res used well!

+ Till We Have Faces. “I am old now and have not much to fear from the anger of gods. I have no husband nor child, nor hardly a friend, through whom they can hurt me. My body, this lean carrion that still has to be washed and fed and have clothes hung about it daily with so many changes, they may kill as soon as they please. The succession is provided for.”

+ The Hour. Let's start the first scene of the first episode of this show with Ben Whishaw talking directly to the camera. I never had a chance.

+ It's a cliche for a reason: A Christmas Carol has such a good opening line! Well done, Dickens!

+ Up! The rest of this movie is, imo, just okay, but the opening scene is a montage that lasts several minutes and it leaves me a weeping mess every time. This is kind of a cheat--it's more short-form storytelling than it is an opening tbh.

+ The Prince of Egypt. 'Nuff said.


(Next week is going to be favorite endings, so be thinking about that!)

Comments

[sawthefaeriequeen]

A classic: There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. Young!me thought: oh this is gonna be good.

Antarctic Navigation by Elizabeth Arthur is about a woman obsessed with polar exploration who eventually recreates the Scott expedition. I knew I would love it as soon as I got to this part in the first chapter where she describes being born:

So I’m fighting and fighting to reach it, to gain an exit from that burning interior, and I’m scrabbling for purchase on the slippery walls that keep closing against me. For the first time in my life, I feel I have a thing to do, a place I must get to, and with only willpower to help me, I yearn to escape. I do battle. I see the world. It disappears. Again, I see it.

And then I am out, all in a slither, and the courtesy of the sudden cold is wonderful as I reach the place where, on maps, they used to write, “Here There Be Dragons.” I am euphoric because there is space, and there is whiteness, and there is something luminous trembling in the air. From up to down, from heat to cold, from darkness to whiteness, from enclosure to freedom. I have reached my first latitude; I am here, in the world, arrived, and I love it.

[lirazel]

Haha, yes! Good for you, Clive Staples!

That is some compelling writing right there!

[gryfndor_godess]

Ooh I have to think about beginnings, but I've had a list of favorite endings for YEARS!

[lirazel]

Endings are easier to remember than beginnings! I've got a ton of them!

[sunshine304]

Yeah, definitely Up. :D I went with a friend who didn't know anything about the movie - I had at least heard that the opening had made the critics cry. We were blubbering messes two minutes in. XD Prince of Egypt also is simply an epic masterpiece start to finish.
In the same vain, the beginning of The Lion King also grabs the viewer instantly. So good!

Mad Max Fury Road. The style. The action. The WTF.

Baby Driver, perfect meld of music, editing, and action. Gets me pumped every time.

Recently, Netflix's One Piece had the perfect opening to keep viewers glued to the screen.

Books, The Martian sure as hell knows how to get your attention. XD Yes, Mark, you're indeed quite fucked.
Pride & Prejudice is iconic for a reason.

Also, Lindsay Ellis' first Omegaverse Lawsuit video starts with a banger. XD Reading choice bits of the book this is all about definitely sets the mood. XD

[lirazel]

Good choices!

Omg that sure was a choice on Lindsey's part to start with wolf porn!

[quodthey]

I have immediately forgotten the beginning of pretty much everything I have ever read/watched and loved, but Gormenghast's opening lines are excellent: Titus is seven. His confines, Gormenghast. Suckled on shadows; weaned, as it were, on webs of ritual: for his ears, echoes, for his eyes, a labyrinth of stone: and yet within his body something other – other than this umbrageous legacy. For first and ever foremost he is child.

[lirazel]

Oh nice! I've always meant to read those books--they're just such doorstoppers that they're intimidating!

[quodthey]

The joy of an ereader is that I don't have to think about how big a book is anymore! I only realised like 3/4 of the way through Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell how long it is.

[lirazel]

I have had that same experience. I started The Dawn of Everything with no clue how long it was and it was only when I felt I'd been reading a long time and that I still was at the 10% mark that I looked it up to find it was almost 700 pages! I was so glad I didn't know, because I probably would have put off reading it if I had!

[shipperslist]

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. (King's Dark Tower Series 1)

It's such a good ending, especially considering how the whole saga ends (or does it?).

[lirazel]

Nice!

[sophia_sol]

I'm so bad at remembering the beginnings to things, but I just went through a number of my book reviews to remind me, and some with particularly compelling-to-me openings include:

- When the Angels Left the Old Country, by Sacha Lamb

- Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding

- All the Horses of Iceland, by Sarah Tolmie

- She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan

- Beowulf: A New Translation, by Maria Dahvana Headley

- Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

- The Door in the Hedge, by Robin McKinley

[lirazel]

Some really good ones there!

[landofnowhere]

I love the first paragraph of Fire and Hemlock. (And all the other paragraphs!)

[lirazel]

I have tried to read that one several times and can't get into it, but I agree it's an intriguing beginning!

[ceciliaj]

Two I personally like from the 90s are American Beauty and Virgin Suicides.

[ceciliaj]

Just remembered I definitely wrote a freshman comp paper about The Virgin Suicides opening. Love that moment in life!

[lirazel]

Nice!!!

[lirazel]

I have never seen American Beauty, but agree about Virgin Suicides!

[pauraque]

I can't think of anything offhand, which makes me wonder if I'm a person who isn't particularly affected by how media opens?

Kindred is a really great book, though, and I'm pretty sure I reviewed it back on 50books_poc. I should dig that up.

[dollsome]

I am so embarrassed that I can't think of something higher-quality off the top of my head, but honestly: Reign! It was love at first sight! I feel like that show just had its vibe figured out perfectly from day one, and the pilot remains one of my favorite pilots in all the land. I was just swept up instantly and watched it over and over the week it premiered!

The openings of Jane Eyre, Emma, Rebecca, and Gone Girl all really stick with me, as ones that come to mind immediately.

I'm gonna be pondering this because I'm sure there's a ton I'm forgetting!

[dollsome]

Oh, also! We Have Always Lived In The Castle! Man, does that book ever just drop you right in it.

[chestnut_pod]

The opening of Sandry's Book, which is the opening of Tamora Pierce's whole Circle of Magic series. Sandry alone in the dark is amazingly gripping. Once it's grabbed you, it also serves so well as a character introduction and introduction to the themes of the series.