Today's first line is from a novel I have never read, which was written by a writer that I once happened upon on a shockingly sunny evening in a Colorado library while I was supposed to be studying for the Colorado Bar Exam. I read the first line that evening, and oh how I wished I could have thrown down my legal books and read the damn Beckett novel. But no, my discipline got the best of me, and I stopped reading with this first and immortal line.
"The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new."
Ten words that convey a boat-load of tone! Just by reading this line, I can assume that the feeling of the novel will be bleak, monotonous, and somewhat cynical. Further, there are two images / phrases that I love in this brief line. First, the idea of the sun shining because it has no alternative? It's wonderfully jaded. Second, the sun shines on the "nothing new," a beautiful alternative to saying the "same old." I suppose that's why Beckett was a genius.
Perhaps someday I'll read something other than this first line.
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