The Power of Those Famous First Words

The first line of a fiction novel is so important that the most famous are instantly recognized: "Call me Ishmael." (Moby-Dick by Herman Melville) "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens) "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. (Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy) "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen) My son and husband just love the new sci-fi hit The Martian by Andy Weir, about an astronaut stranded on Mars; it begins with "I'm pretty much f--d." Memorable first lines grab the reader's interest, introduce the style or voice of the novel, and create expectations that the author will satisfy or confound. Many stock opening words set the scene, but the best go way beyond "It was a dark and stormy night." Consider how George Orwell's initially standard start to his novel 1984 is disturbingly transformed by the last word: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." Some first lines hook the reader immediately by jumping right into action, as in Toni Morrison's Paradise: "They shoot the white girl first." Other fiction openers present a thesis or opinion before moving forward, beginning with a statement that engages or challenges the reader's experience and that grows in impact by the novel's last words. Austen and Tolstoy succeeded in the examples above. First lines also can draw in readers with suspense--about what will be revealed about events (The Martian), or about the narrator as in Albert Camus' The Stranger ("Mother died today."), or about both as in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five ("All this happened, more or less.") Test yourself on how many first lines are etched in your memory with this quiz courtesy of The Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2014/0612/Famous-opening-lines-Take-our-literature-quiz/Question-110

Blowing Out the Candles of Another Birthday

Today is my birthday, and social media congratulations are piling up. Thank you all. An issue arises every year over how to celebrate, or indeed whether to celebrate the aging process at all. My husband, whose birth date is just five days different from mine, announced his plan for a joint weekend gathering in our home with our children and local relatives (over a dozen people). I thought that was fine until he asked me what I planned to cook for everyone. He was taken aback when I declined the culinary opportunity. And I refused to bake my own cake, too. Clearly, after years of blowing out an ever-growing number of candles, my birthday spirit is exhausted. So I looked at various Internet lists of celebration ideas, ranging from dull standards (dining out) to the downright depressing (go to temple and thank God you've survived another year). I wondered what livelier ladies might suggest. Here's one list of "extremely fun ways" for women to celebrate: take a private plane ride (just not with Harrison Ford); see a Broadway show (I suggest this every year with no result); perform as many acts of kindness as your number of years (yikes, I'll be busy); do something you wanted to do as a child but didn't get to do (laser tag as long as I don't break a hip); organize a flash mob (volunteers?); escape urban stress by camping (need to fix tears in the old air mattress and tent first); go on an unplanned road trip (and send constant lonely posts to social media); throw a theme party (requiring costumes is a great way to reduce attendance and expense); do something from your "bucket list" (skydiving? forget it); pamper yourself at a spa (always ready for that); go to a karaoke bar (sorry about being tone deaf); have a fancy birthday brunch with friends (easy to get RSVPs as long as I promise champagne); and, finally, take a cooking workshop--and we're back to cooking! But just as I finished writing this grumbling post, my husband walked in with a bouquet of roses and reminded me that being with those you love is still the best way to celebrate. For another list of birthday celebration ideas for adult women, see http://www.todaysthebestday.com/ways-to-celebrate-your-birthday/

When Digital Text Rules, Does Writing Quality Bow?

My children insist on communicating almost entirely via text messages. It allows them to connect at work, at the gym, in restaurants or at parties, when they can't or won't talk on cell phones. If I need to communicate detailed information, I must send an e-mail. The next time you go out to eat, check the neighboring tables and count those where every single person--parents, children, friends and lovers--is silently staring at a mobile device to check e-mail, text, tweet, read Facebook updates, search the Internet, etc. So many of us are in company yet alone--focused on a stream of digital words and pictures. Written communication has become a social necessity, and digital tools have conferred on Everyman the power to instantly influence a wide audience with the written word. Yet I wonder what impact the Digital Age is having on the actual quality of writing and the standards of readers. Are we producing generations fluent only in informal, abbreviated "textspeak" and addicted to shallow word bites? It's interesting to see the results of a 2013 Pew Research Center survey of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers about the impact of digital tools on student writing. On the plus side, some 78% of teachers said digital tools, such as the Internet, social media, and cell phones, "encourage student creativity and personal expression." Definitely, e-mails and social posts require concise, active, colorful language to engage attention spans measured in seconds! But 68% of teachers also said digital tools made students more likely to take shortcuts and not put effort into their writing. And what about written content? Teachers rated students lowest on constructing a strong argument, reading and digesting long or complicated texts, and navigating fair use and copyright. It would seem that despite our expanding digital word power, good writing and clear thinking are still in need of champions. For more on the study, see http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/07/16/the-impact-of-digital-tools-on-student-writing-and-how-writing-is-taught-in-schools-2/

The Dark Attraction of Murderous Duos

Most murder mystery plots revolve around a single killer. Murderous partners are rarer in fiction and in real life, which is why they have a macabre fascination. In fact, as a 2014 Psychology Today article noted, more than a fifth of serial killers operate in teams, most involving two offenders. And these teams have a unique psychological dynamic: One member is invariably a dominant figure who manipulates a subordinate partner's youth, neediness, mental instability, or low intelligence, according to Eric W. Hickey, a forensic psychologist and the author of Serial Murderers and Their Victims, who has studied more than 500 serial killer teams. The dominant predator in a killing team maintains such psychological and even physical control that the partnership acquires greater emotional significance than any personal moral code that might prevent heinous acts, experts agree. These deadly partnerships are often sexual: Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate; Paul Bernardo and Karen Homolka; Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. But it is the aberrant emotional glue that really counts; consider the father-son relationship of the 2002 D.C. sniper team of Muhammad and Malvo, or the same-sex peer bond of the teenage Columbine killers. So how do such murderous duos form? Gregg McCrary, a behavioral criminologist and former FBI agent, theorizes in the article: "There's radar, gaydar, and, maybe, mur-dar. It resembles the phenomenon wherein normal people meet and decide that they're going to get along, but with these couples, it takes a dark turn. They vector in on each other, sensing the excitement of a kindred spirit. It becomes electric." There's a dark law of attraction that leads to nightmares. For the complete Psychology Today article, including historical examples, read https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201406/partners-in-crime. For some more examples of famous killing teams, see http://listverse.com/2012/07/08/10-awful-serial-killer-teams/.