Chapter 1. Analog Versus Digital
It was a dark and stormy night…
Ah, the classic opening: “It was a dark and stormy night…” which was made famous by the Peanuts cartoon character, Snoopy (see Box). I always wanted to start a book this way myself, and this is as good a time as any…
The phrase “It was a dark and stormy night…” is actually the opening sentence of an 1830 book by the British author Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton. A legend in his own lunchtime, Bulwer-Lytton became renowned for penning exceptionally bad prose, of which the opening to his book Paul Clifford set the standard for others to follow.
For your delectation and delight, the complete opening sentence of Bulwer-Lytton’s masterpiece was: “It was a dark and stormy night; ...
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