It’s Frederico Fellini’s birthday. Vive le Cinéma!

An Open Door

Yesterday we drew open a new door. We stood in front of hundreds of students (24 at a time) and introduced ourselves politely. First impressions aren’t forgotten, so we tried our damndest to seem competent, entertaining, and, to some degree, likable. We think we pulled it off. We know how the rickety ship of education can sink prematurely. When a new semester of teaching begins, if you don’t impress at the beginning, you won’t impress at the end. It’s like Henry Miller said. Start with drums, then end with dynamite.

In the spirit of new beginnings, we’re thinking about books with memorable opening paragraphs. Dozens of books come to mind. Moby Dick, Plants Don’t Drink Coffee, Ulysses, The Stranger, Under the Volcano. But of all the books we’ve read, there are three that hold as the standards for introduction.

And while we don’t want our semesters to travel the same paths that these tales do, we surely wouldn’t mind if they began as vividly.

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