#Ladies' eardrops
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Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii / Wild Fuchsia at the Juniper Level Botanical Gardens in Raleigh, NC
#Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii#Malvaviscus drummondii#Wild Fuchsia#Ladies' eardrops#Scotchman's purse#Turk's turban#Turk cap#Nature photography#Flowers#Juniper Level Botanical Gardens#Raleigh NC#Raleigh#North Carolina
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Man i get the medical system is super flawed but I’m. so tired of the people who are so vehemently against utilizing it. Not even just antivaxxers because that’s a whole nother box of fish.
But the people who just outright refuse to seek medical help for them or their child(!!!). Not because they can’t or don’t have access, they just. won’t. or if they do they refuse to take any medication given to them because they want to try potato or onion slices or shoving an entire garlic clove in the problem area first.
Facebook groups that become echo chambers and literally ban you if you Dare to suggest seeking medical attention.
People applying black salve and literally rotting their own flesh away. People asking if they should worry about a 104 fever but refuse tylenol or other fever reducer. People ingesting essential oils and putting it in the food they serve to others. People literally giving birth in the FUCKING ocean and who take their newborns to the chiropractor to get “adjusted”, whatever the hell that means.
People who say “listen to your body/baby” in regards to pregnancy concerns and refusing ultrasounds or check-ups. people asking “how much blood is too much-” (if you have to ask, it’s too much). Some parents even refuse vitamin K at birth, even vitamins have become demonized to these people because they’re recommended by the big evil medical corporations.
People waiting until the last possible second only to end up losing themselves or their child or to end up with a lifelong side-effect that could have been prevented a long time ago if they weren’t so far up their own asses about how terrible ~big pharma~ is and how all antibiotics and medicines are evil.
#I have. many more upsetting examples stuck in my head of shit like this that i'll leave out bc. God they just hurt to think about emotionall#ask to tag? im. unsure what to tag this with lol#It's just so TIRING lol like. i get it.it's bad. but it's not that fucking bad just take the antibiotics take the fucking eardrops#TAKE THE GOT DAM TYLENOL#aaaaaaaAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAaaaaaaaaaa#The 'listen to your body!!' thing is especially infuriating bc surprise the body is fucking TELLING YOU SOMETHING IS WRONG#AND YOURE REFUSING TO USE THE PROPER CHANNELS TO FIGURE OUT WHAT'S UP#*gif of that one lady fucking losing it and tearing up the curtains*#ok to rb or add to discuss bc. god
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Lady’s Eardrops
Fuchsia boliviana Carrière or Lady’s Eardrops dropping in on the Flower Dome. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.
Keeping the ISO at no more than 200, the shutter speed that was obtained came to only 1/80 second. Thankfully, the image came out sharp. Lens stabilization and the weight of the kit had probably also helped.
#photographers on tumblr#flora fauna#flora photography#flower pics#Fuchsia boliviana Carrière#fuchsia photos#Lady's Eardrops#photography tips#sigma 18 300mm#sigma photography#sigma sd quattro h
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not being able to hear in one ear and having constant ringing instead sucks shit when will it end
#i tried to clean out earwax with eardrops bc the lady at cvs told me i had too much and she couldnt see in my ears#left ear it worked so quickly#right one has been. a lot more stubborn. this sucks#been like this since tuesday#also sorry i come here to bitch about stupid shit
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Lisey Sweet double penetration and double anal
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Tattooed domina TS creampies her slave
#strainer#didrachma#toymaker#ilusiones#dazzlers#continuingly#hubmaker#jowpy#fungify#through-drive#sabalos#long-heeled#lady's-eardrop#recodifies#cystadenosarcoma#hemochrome#obis#teknonymy#prophet-preacher#hurries
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Since we all agree the Harry Potter is NOT it...here's a fun poll! These are just my picks but if you feel that I've neglected one, tell me and I'll make another poll, the winners can face off or something.
Please reblog to break containment!
Pride and Prejudice: It is a truth universally acknowledged , that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Northanger Abbey: No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine.
Anne of Green Gables: Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.
The Graveyard Book: There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.
Romeo and Juliet:
"Two households, both alike in dignity
(In fair Verona, where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean."
Tuck Everlasting: The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.
Fahrenheit 451: It was a pleasure to burn.
The Hobbit: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
A Christmas Carol: MARLEY WAS DEAD, to begin with.
The Secret Garden: When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Far Out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Percy Jackson/The Lightning Thief: Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood
#pride and prejudice#northanger abbey#anne of green gables#the graveyard book#romeo and juliet#tuck everlasting#fahrenheit 451#the hobbit#a christmas carol#the secret garden#the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy#percy jackson#the lightning thief#bookish things#polls#booklr#booklover#bookworm
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You Have My Attention: Anne of Green Gables First Lines
The icon of Canadian girlhood needs no introduction, as Anne of Green Gables is a global phenomenon at this point. What those of you who read the first book at like age ten and then didn't bother exploring further might not know, however, is that LM Montgomery wrote a whole Anne series. So how did she catch a reader's attention? Let's find out!
"Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof."
-- Anne of Green Gables
"A tall, slim girl, 'half-past sixteen,' with serious gray eyes and hair which her friends called auburn, had sat down on the broad red sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island farmhouse one ripe afternoon in August, firmly resolved to construe so many lines of Virgil."
-- Anne of Avonlea
"'Harvest is ended and summer is gone,' quoted Anne Shirley, gazing across the shorn fields dreamily."
-- Anne of the Island
"(Letter from Anne Shirley, B.A., Principal of Summerside High School, to Gilbert Blythe, medical student at Redmond College, Kingsport.)
Windy Poplars,
Spook's Lane,
S'side, P. E. I.,
Monday, September 12th.
DEAREST:
Isn't that an address!"
-- Anne of the Windy Poplars
"'Thanks be, I’m done with geometry, learning or teaching it,' said Anne Shirley, a trifle vindictively, as she thumped a somewhat battered volume of Euclid into a big chest of books, banged the lid in triumph, and sat down upon it, looking at Diana Wright across the Green Gables garret, with gray eyes that were like a morning sky."
-- Anne's House of Dreams
"'How white the moonlight is tonight!' said Anne Blythe to herself, as she went up the walk of the Wright garden to Diana Wright's front door, where little cherry-blossom petals were coming down on the salty, breeze-stirred air."
-- Anne of Ingleside
"It was a clear, apple-green evening in May, and Four Winds Harbour was mirroring back the clouds of the golden west between its softly dark shores. The sea moaned eerily on the sand-bar, sorrowful even in spring, but a sly, jovial wind came piping down the red harbour road along which Miss Cornelia’s comfortable, matronly figure was making its way towards the village of Glen St. Mary."
-- Rainbow Valley
"It was a warm, golden-cloudy, lovable afternoon. In the big living-room at Ingleside Susan Baker sat down with a certain grim satisfaction hovering about her like an aura; it was four o'clock and Susan, who had been working incessantly since six that morning, felt that she had fairly earned an hour of repose and gossip."
-- Rilla of Ingleside
#lm montgomery#anne of green gables#anne of avonlea#anne of the island#anne of the windy poplars#anne's house of dreams#anne of ingleside#rainbow valley#rilla of ingleside#anne shirley#gilbert blythe#diana barry#marilla cuthbert#matthew cuthbert#rilla blythe#walter blythe#canadian literature#children's books#children's literature#girlhood#books and reading#books & libraries#books and novels#books#book recommendations
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this is an embarrassing thing to be so thrilled about, but i finally decided to look up the flower “ladies’ eardrops” since it appears in the first sentence of anne of green gables, and it turns out ......... it’s a fuchsia!!!!!!! aka my favorite flower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#didn't think i could love aogg more after our thirty+ years together#but there's always something new to discover#:')#dollsome's deep thoughts#feeling so kindred rn
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Story Theory: Detail v. Description
So yes, it varies worldwide and by different contexts.
I first posted this on Nanowrimo, which then got used on Writing Excuses by Brandon Sanderson. So I think it's fair to steal it back. As I said, I LOVE extended analogies and at the time no one was making a distinction and a lot of people don't.
Up front: Neither are evil. They are both tools in the toolbox, and how you use them is important. Yes, it varies by context, country, etc. So yes, there are judgment calls.
Definitions
Description is a long introductory paragraph which might carry an emotion, but often doesn't really have the character in it.
Detail is integrated bits of stick-out information.
Analogy
If you have a car, you don't need to know exactly how the carburetor works, what the model of the engine is, what color the exhaust pipe is. But you might want to know that it is red and has flame decals, especially, say if it's a mystery and that's a KEY bit of information to crack the case.
If you describe the car, then you're getting every last bit about the make model, the carburetor, etc. That's a description.
But if you're getting the detail, then that's the flame decals.
Theories on how to apply these tools and when to cut.
Description is usually used for slow action, taking a breath, discovery, to slow action down, and generally to set up scenery. Sometimes it's used to set up a character that's new to the narrating character. The key here is that the character must be new to the narrating character, not to the reader.
You cut it when it's the opposite. You want to speed up the action. You don't want to take a breath. It's all action, morality, or conflict. And you aren't setting up scenery/scenery is not key yet.
Detail is a quick in and out of something that is DIFFERENT or STICKS OUT.
Hey, your friend is wearing is bright green sweater, you're going to notice that.
Why cut it all out?
The person has a sensory disability. (I'd urge you to up the other information the character does have in this case)
The person isn't very self aware of anything.
The character narrating isn't very observant, or only observant in certain situations (ADHD and hyper focus can be played with this way)
The character is super self-absorbed
Likewise, if the character is observant, very self-aware, very tuned into others, then these things should increase, BUT when you pick it out, make sure it has purpose. Like the little bit of cereal on his collar and baby food on his shirt pocket tells you he's struggling with his baby.
Examples
Description:
MRS. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof. --Anne of Green Gables, opening line.
This also characterizes Mrs. Lynde.
Detail:
And yet here was Matthew Cuthbert, at half-past three on the afternoon of a busy day, placidly driving over the hollow and up the hill; moreover, he wore a white collar and his best suit of clothes, which was plain proof that he was going out of Avonlea; and he had the buggy and the sorrel mare, which betokened that he was going a considerable distance. Now, where was Matthew Cuthbert going and why was he going there? --Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
The bolded bits are details, because they stick out to the narrating character, Mrs Lynde.
What should description and detail include?
It's best to include these with an emotion attached, instead of listing them off.
So it's not chocolate chip cookies.
It's grandmother's chocolate chip cookies she made every Sunday without fail. Eating the gooey center made me cry as I stared at the recipe again in her dusty recipe box.
Aim the detail/description at an emotion, or at least towards your story driver. You can see that in even the Anne of Green Gables passage. There is a non-stated emotion in the first paragraph.
With emotion, BTW, doesn't mean writing the previous as,
I ate grandmother's chocolate chip cookies and I felt sad. I looked at the dusty recipe box.
No. Don't tell the emotion. Show the unique way your character has it. Because another character Might face a similar situation and sniff bravely.
Sensory information:
Sight
Color, texture, props, items.
Taste
salty, umame, sweet, aromas, bitter, etc.
C'mon leverage your literary super power as a novel writer.
Hearing
This is often good to combine with sight. For example, the creak of the wooden wheels ad the gravel crunched below in the grand courtyard.
Smell
People who don't go outside forget the smell of everything except food. People *smell*. Flowers smell like things. Smells are carried on the wind. You can't do this in movies, but you can in books. Make your character have this experience.
Touch
Smooth, rough, velvety? Up this for books. Make those screenwriters hate you.
Interoception- sensations from inside the body Belly grumbled with hunger. So tired. Headache.
Vestibular sense (balance) Is the character balanced all of the time?
Time information
What time of day is it? What time of year is it?
Place information
I'm guilty of forgetting to include the setting. But also, you should include where your character is in space. If you're lost, then draw a map with an x and colored pencils every time you move the character.
I also cheat by using programs like Sketch up, the Sims, etc. Make sure your characters don't jump in space. Color code as needed.
If they are up a mountain, down a mountain, about to cross a river, all of these should have a cascading effect on the character and the interactions. Don't forget that the place information should influence how the dialogue is said.
Weather. Don't forget what season it is. If it's sunny all of the time, I'm suspicious, especially if you've set it in England. WTH. Make sure your weather patterns match.
Dreary rain. Sunny. Snowing.
What do characters look like? What are their expressions?
Don't tell what the emotions are. Talk me through how they usually are when they are sad, or playing more than one emotion at a time. If you're limited on time, push it through dialogue.
What does the clothing, food, or customs look like?
The white shirt up there, for example is fast.
So across cultures this varies a bit.
Long descriptions of scenery is more Chinese, as well as describing the characters who usually get long info. Tone set up is usually done by description in traditional Zuni tales.
In Korean, there might be a setting set up with tone and theme attached.
Descriptions might be longer in Japanese works to set up a certain mood.
But I think it's worth it to look at those cultures and how they are pulling it off and what techniques you can learn from them doing it that way. What does the story gain, what does it communicate, how do you feel? How do people of that culture feel about the work? If you're a writer you need to be concerned about more than yourself when it comes to techniques.
Generally, when you're faced with a work that's unfamiliar, try to feel out what it's trying to accomplish by doing it that way and you learn much more than by rejecting it.
But imagine you could be masterful enough to have a scenery description that could set up mood, tone, voice of the story, and the theme all at once because you combed through other people's techniques to arrive there. Wouldn't you feel smug especially if you managed to do all of that in 40 words or less? (English, granted). I think I would.
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Saw this trend on goodreads where you take the opening line of a book, and then add “and then the dragons arrived,” so:
Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; and then the dragons arrived.
#mrs rachel would be VERY surprised by dragons#this made me laugh so hard#dragons in avonlea#could you imagine#anne of green gables#mrs rachel lynde
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@dcviline asked: ❝ Lord Baelish promised that no harm would come to me. ❞ (sansa @ myranda)
A short pause comes from Lady Royce. She let's the servants walk a little further, out of eardrops and rumors before turning to look at the lady before her. "And has he delivered on that promise, my lady?" Eyes often told one many things. War has changed a lot of people and those who had seen death, have a mark on their stare that haunts all of them forever.
Myranda has many questions, for she sees that same glazed look. "And do speak freely, please. I am tired of courtly secrets or misconceptions. Whatever you say to me, will not leave my mouth."
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WIP Wednesday: Net Impression
Poor Net Impression, one of my few WIPs that nobody ever asked about 😂 but I'm going to tell you anyway! Because I really wanted to share this scene.
Once upon a time, x_los wrote this beautiful miniature of a modern AU, and I left the following comment:
"Wow, I was not expecting to be taken back so acutely to That Time in My Life, i.e., the three years I spent as a government litigator in unrequited love with my broke legal-aid lawyer best friend and former classmate, but A+++++++ emotional verisimilitude and excuse me while I go hide under the covers with a Kleenex box for the rest of the day and possibly year!"
And then the next day, without making any conscious decision to do so, I wrote this:
Lan Zhan wakes of her own volition, when the sky is still dark; habit makes the best alarm. Core hours at the agency don’t start until 7. She rolls out her mat and breathes through her morning yoga. A quick shower; she’ll wash her hair tonight after tennis.
Breakfast is a banana—eaten standing up, in a private rebellion against one of Uncle’s rules—while she skims the Post’s website. Wei Ying has informed her that reading the paper over breakfast officially makes her an old lady.
Lan Zhan favors light colors but has bowed to practicality in the matter of slacks; today, navy, with a white shell and cardigan, and white ankle boots. “This is how I know you’re a witch, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying had told her. “Because you wear white shoes and they’re never dirty.” The last words had been pronounced with the kind of grand j’accuse energy that would accompany the reveal of a murderer’s identity at the end of a mystery novel.
Jewelry is tricky; Lan Zhan likes how she looks with adornment, but still does battle with a voice telling her not to draw attention to her appearance. Today, simple white pearl eardrops suffice. Sometimes she pairs them with a string of pearls around her neck, but Wei Ying had commented offhand that the cardigan-and-pearls look was “very Stepford,” and it still stings, though she’s sure it wasn’t meant to. Her hair goes in a French braid, as it has every day of her life since she was twelve; the movements automatic by now.
She feels about cosmetics much the same way that she feels about jewelry, with the added risk of looking like a fool for lack of practice in its application. Wei Ying had mentioned, once, that mascara was “hard to fuck up.” Lan Zhan bought the same brand she saw in Wei Ying’s bag, and applies it most working days. A restrained rose-pink lipstick has also become habit. She likes the look of it, and the feel of applying it, silky and light. She looks in the mirror and sees nothing to criticize. Good enough.
No leftovers to bring for lunch; she will take her chances with the food trucks.
It’s cold outside—not New York or Chicago cold, but cold enough for a scarf and a jacket. With no lunch to pack, her briefcase is light. Her tennis racket and tennis clothes are at work. She has no competition for a seat on the Metro, at this hour, and she makes good progress on her book.
She badges into the building, and then into her floor, and then sits at her desk at 7 precisely, for another day at work, having only thought of Wei Ying four times. That, too, is good enough.
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Meme taken from @ringneckedpheasant
As always, while I would recommend most of these authors, I do not support everything each of them has ever written and in some cases object strongly to some of their stuff.
I enjoyed this exercise a lot. First lines, “hooks”, can be so iconic, and it's interesting to look at them in isolation.
Lady of Quality – Georgette Heyer: The elegant traveling carriage which bore Miss Wychwood from her birthplace, on the border of Somerset and Wiltshire, to her home in Bath, proceeded on its way at a decorous pace.
Haven't read this one yet, but this strikes me as a very Georgette Heyer opening line – you know it's going to be a fancy setting about fancy people. That being said, it's also extremely bland. I would take out the information about her birthplace (because why does it matter at the outset?) and replace it with something more energetic. Overall it, feels staid and, well, decorous.
Rating: 5/10
The Complete Fairy Tales of George MacDonald – In this case, the opening line isn't by MacDonald; it's an introduction by Roger Lancelyn Green: Once upon a time there was a poor farmer's son who lived in a little house in the north of Scotland, a house so small that he and his five brothers had to sleep in the living-room, in little box-beds built against the walls with sliding doors to keep out the draught and make it even more box-like.
The details about the beds are good. I can see a child (or an adult) reading that line and being intrigued by the boxiness. Is it a cozy box, tucked away, or a box where things are put and forgotten? The fairy tale style is also charming. My quibble here is that I would've broken it into two sentences somewhere around the north of Scotland.
Rating: 7/10
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis: Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.
Tidy, straight to the point, no gimmick. A bit boring, but it moves you along quickly to the more interesting stuff. But still, a bit bland. I've always believed in reading The Chronicles of Narnia in their publication order rather than the chronological order the American editions go with, and this partially demonstrates why. Lion was the first to be published, and its language can feel simpler than the other books.
Anyway, nothing special about this opening line. Lewis is lucky the book's dedication is so much more memorable.
Rating: 2/10
Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins: I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather.
Most of the books on this list are fairly old, so this highlights the stylistic change in more modern books. Immediately in the protagonist's head, brief language, an indirect hint at conflict. It's an effective opener, letting the reader know something bad has happened, leading into the explanation rather than trying to pack too much into the first line. Though the line comes after seeing the title for Part One, which is just “The Ashes” – so having the ashes immediately referred to reads as unintentionally funny to me. The ashes. There they are, on my shoes.
Rating: 8/10
The Luck of the Bodkins – PG Wodehouse: Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French.
As an opening vault goes, the style is roundabout but the landing is pure Wodehouse. It's maybe a little too wordy before it hits the punchline, but I can't actually see where I'd cut anything to try to improve it.
Rating: 9/10
Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery: Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.
Merciful Providence, Maud, you are s t r e t c h i n g the definition of an opening line! This line spills out and babbles like a brook – like the book's heroine Anne. There's nothing wrong with that, I just don't understand why she went with semi-colons instead of periods. Was her typewriter broken? As a single opening line, it's ungainly. But the line about the brook behaving itself as it passes the Lynde house is golden.
I think it's interesting to see the famous Green Gables called merely “the old Cuthbert place”. Anne of the Old Cuthbert Place would never have sold fifty million copies worldwide.
Rating: 4/10
Singer in the Shadows – Irving Litvag: I discovered Patience Worth (or, as true believers in the occult would say, she discovered me) by the flimsiest of coincidences.
This is the only nonfiction book on the list, and the subject is fascinating. In the 1910s, a woman named Pearl Curran claimed to be the medium through which a spirit named Patience Worth communicated – and launched a successful writing career. I've read one of Curran's/Worth's novels, Hope Trueblood, and I wasn't very impressed by it. But Litvag's investigation of the supposed phenomenon is very engrossing. To that end, I would have clarified more of the wild premise in the first line – I discovered the ghost Patience Worth – or something like that, because otherwise it's a pretty tame opener.
Rating: 6/10
Spells of Enchantment – ed. Jack Zipes: It has generally been assumed that fairy tales were first created for children and are largely the domain of children.
This is a collection of myths, fairy tales, and folktales, so the opening line comes from its introduction. It is huge, and even though I've owned it for probably twenty years, I still haven't gotten all the way through it. Zipes' opener is fine, but basic. I feel like most people who pick up an 814-page fairy tale anthology already know that fairy tales weren't originally intended for children. But it works for what it is, implying a contradiction, egging the reader on to find out what the truth is.
Rating: 5/10
Shadow Scale – Rachel Hartman: Let us first consider the role of Seraphina Dombegh in the events leading up to Queen Glisselda's reign.
I love it when fantasy authors not only present the immediate story, but add scholarly meta commentaries on their own fantasyworld. This opener lets the reader infer that the heroine, Seraphina, is going to do stuff that's so important and remarkable, she's not just a protagonist, she's a figure in history. This is a good example of using a “spoiler” to actually spur the reader on to learn more; giving them a glimpse of the future doesn't mean that a plot twist is ruined.
Rating: 6/10
Forever Amber – Kathleen Winsor: The small room was warm and moist.
Not much of an opener. Forever Amber, one of many twentieth century historical sagas that tried to follow the success of Gone With the Wind, became a bestseller on the strength of its salacious, amoral heroine Amber. But this opening does nothing, not by itself. Whatever interest is going to be generated will have to come from the following sentences. Gone With the Wind, despite its serious flaws, does a much better job of setting tone and sparking interest in its opening line.
Rating: 2/10
If this interests you, consider yourself tagged!
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Chapter 1: Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised (part 1)
MRS. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies’ eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back in the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde’s Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s door without due regard for decency and decorum; it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.
There are plenty of people in Avonlea and out of it, who can attend closely to their neighbor’s business by dint of neglecting their own; but Mrs. Rachel Lynde was one of those capable creatures who can manage their own concerns and those of other folks into the bargain. She was a notable housewife; her work was always done and well done; she “ran” the Sewing Circle, helped run the Sunday-school, and was the strongest prop of the Church Aid Society and Foreign Missions Auxiliary. Yet with all this Mrs. Rachel found abundant time to sit for hours at her kitchen window, knitting “cotton warp” quilts—she had knitted sixteen of them, as Avonlea housekeepers were wont to tell in awed voices—and keeping a sharp eye on the main road that crossed the hollow and wound up the steep red hill beyond. Since Avonlea occupied a little triangular peninsula jutting out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence with water on two sides of it, anybody who went out of it or into it had to pass over that hill road and so run the unseen gauntlet of Mrs. Rachel’s all-seeing eye.
She was sitting there one afternoon in early June. The sun was coming in at the window warm and bright; the orchard on the slope below the house was in a bridal flush of pinky-white bloom, hummed over by a myriad of bees. Thomas Lynde—a meek little man whom Avonlea people called “Rachel Lynde’s husband”—was sowing his late turnip seed on the hill field beyond the barn; and Matthew Cuthbert ought to have been sowing his on the big red brook field away over by Green Gables. Mrs. Rachel knew that he ought because she had heard him tell Peter Morrison the evening before in William J. Blair’s store over at Carmody that he meant to sow his turnip seed the next afternoon. Peter had asked him, of course, for Matthew Cuthbert had never been known to volunteer information about anything in his whole life.
And yet here was Matthew Cuthbert, at half-past three on the afternoon of a busy day, placidly driving over the hollow and up the hill; moreover, he wore a white collar and his best suit of clothes, which was plain proof that he was going out of Avonlea; and he had the buggy and the sorrel mare, which betokened that he was going a considerable distance. Now, where was Matthew Cuthbert going and why was he going there?
Had it been any other man in Avonlea, Mrs. Rachel, deftly putting this and that together, might have given a pretty good guess as to both questions. But Matthew so rarely went from home that it must be something pressing and unusual which was taking him; he was the shyest man alive and hated to have to go among strangers or to any place where he might have to talk. Matthew, dressed up with a white collar and driving in a buggy, was something that didn’t happen often. Mrs. Rachel, ponder as she might, could make nothing of it and her afternoon’s enjoyment was spoiled.
“I’ll just step over to Green Gables after tea and find out from Marilla where he’s gone and why,” the worthy woman finally concluded. “He doesn’t generally go to town this time of year and he never visits; if he’d run out of turnip seed he wouldn’t dress up and take the buggy to go for more; he wasn’t driving fast enough to be going for a doctor. Yet something must have happened since last night to start him off. I’m clean puzzled, that’s what, and I won’t know a minute’s peace of mind or conscience until I know what has taken Matthew Cuthbert out of Avonlea today.”
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Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back into the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum: it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.
— Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
#book quotes#children's fiction#l. m. montgomery#lucy maude montgomery#anne of green gables series#anne of green gables
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