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BS: Strange Sentences from Books
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Subject: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST, Just a reader Date: 22 Feb 07 - 11:34 PM Every once in a while I run across a sentence that is especially strange. The sentence below is from a book about famous crimes: "He left Edinburgh in disgrace, became a showman to a travelling group of Jibbeway Indians and finally became an obstetrician in London." Just an odd sentence. Maybe you've come across some. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Amos Date: 22 Feb 07 - 11:44 PM Well, now, stranger, mebbe Ah have. An' then agin, mebbe I ain't. Ah guess it deepenz on who wants tuh know... Actually I just heard a recording of Douglas Adams raving about the amazing rich similes penned by P.G. Wodehouse, whom he praises to the skies as one of the greatest writers ever to coin a phrase in English. I don't remember his examples, but they were very funny. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Scrump Date: 23 Feb 07 - 07:35 AM I've occasionally read a sentence in one of the 'classics' (e.g. by Charles Dickens or Jane Austen) that makes me chortle because it has taken on a new meaning since being written, sometimes with funny results which makes the sentence seem incongrous in a work by such a highly respected author. Unfortunately I can't remember any examples right now. Whenever I read them, I think I ought to compile a list of these strange quotations, but I've never done it. But now this thread exists, maybe I will have a place to record them and share them with others. Can anyone think of an example of the sort of thing I mean? I can't be the only one who has read such a sentence and done a double-take. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Bat Goddess Date: 23 Feb 07 - 07:48 AM Some people just invite odd juxtapositions when their lives are reduced to a few sentences. Sort of reminds me of the shop sign in Newmarket, New Hampshire -- "Marelli's Fruit & Real Estate". Linn |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Peter T. Date: 23 Feb 07 - 07:52 AM The last scene in Kafka's Metamorphosis, where his sister stretches out her body in new life is one of the strangest sentences I know. It comes completely out of nowhere. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,Just a reader Date: 23 Feb 07 - 01:15 PM Yes, I always intended to start a list of those sentences too, which is what prompted this. I was debating whether to do it for the thousandth time and thought of this instead. Ads can be odd, too. I saw one in the back of a Farm & Ranch magazine once. It advertised a sheep castrator and said, "Satisfaction guranteed." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: RangerSteve Date: 23 Feb 07 - 03:16 PM the Guest post above reminds me of a fruit tree catalog I had. The headline on the page of peach trees said: Our (Variety) of peaches shout "Eat Me". I didn't order any. I don't tolerate rudeness in fruit. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Becca72 Date: 23 Feb 07 - 04:43 PM LOL, Steve...that reminds me of a seafood shop here in Maine...their sign last summer read "Got crabs? We do!". It definitely made me giggle, but I couldn't bring myself to stop there... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,lox Date: 23 Feb 07 - 06:28 PM I have been known to stop in mid conversatiion to deliberately take a sentence or phrase and repeat it out of context for laughs. Hmmmm What was it someone said about not telling people everything ... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Michael from Manitoba Date: 23 Feb 07 - 08:40 PM I'm always amused by those dialogue tags in nineteenth century novels that go ...he ejaculated (meaning 'he yelled')! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Feb 07 - 11:23 PM There are authors noted for their complicated sentences (William Faulkner springs to mind) but the one who wrote some of the longest sentences I remember reading was Jessie Weston in her book From Ritual to Romance about Arthur and the Holy Grail rituals. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Jeremiah McCaw Date: 24 Feb 07 - 05:02 AM Nothing really odd about it, but so perfectly descriptive - from a Mike Hammer novel: "From forty feet away, she looked like she had a lot of class. From ten feet, she looked like she'd been made up to be seen forty feet away." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Micca Date: 24 Feb 07 - 08:25 AM A friend has compiled a book of First Lines, the intended use being to stimulate discussions in writing circles and seminars etc. some if them really get the mind doing a doubletake.. i.e. "The orc fastened his ice skates " I'm Christopher Dean" he thought" "Hours and hours of television viewing in his childhood hadn't turned him into an idiot or a sociopath." "The cowboy slouched in the saddle in despair, he hated horses and guns, so why hadn't he listened to his father and become an accountant." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 25 Feb 07 - 08:24 AM "their sign last summer read "Got crabs? We do!"." Would have looked good next to the 'Come Diving' shop I once saw then... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: alanabit Date: 26 Feb 07 - 01:15 AM Two from Wodehouse: "The butler entered, a solemn procession of one." "It is not possible to combine dignified sauntering with tripping over a cat." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 26 Feb 07 - 02:20 PM Someone referred to opening sentences (in this case, paragraphs) from books. Though sixty years have passed since I read Barefoot Boy With Cheek, I remember the first paragraph word for word: The morning of the great day dawned bright and clear. "Huzzah!", I cried, as I bounded out of bed. I bounded right back in again. During the night my drop-seat pajamas had become entangled in the bedspring." How can anyone top that? Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,petr Date: 26 Feb 07 - 03:33 PM Its just that I dont want to be used as a toothpick. (not from a book , but a fragment I overheard in a University Pub long ago.) Or someone bringing over buckets of bear noses. (from an Nyorker article on taxidermy) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Amos Date: 26 Feb 07 - 04:12 PM Well, really -- who would want to be used as a toohpick? Was the person who said this particularly thin? A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Bill D Date: 26 Feb 07 - 04:15 PM The Famous Bulwer-Lytton Contest |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: bobad Date: 26 Feb 07 - 07:53 PM The opening paragraph from one of my favorite authors, T.Coraghessan Boyle, from his first novel "Water Music": "At an age when most young Scotsmen were lifting skirts, plowing furrows, and spreading seed, Mungo Park was displaying his bare buttocks to al-haj'Ali Ibn Fatoudi, Emir of Ludamar. The year was 1795. George III was dabbing the walls of Windsor Castle with his own spittle, the Notables were botching things in France, Goya was deaf, De Quincey a depraved adolescent. George Bryan 'Beau' Brummell was smoothing down his first starched collar, young Ludwig van Beethoven, beetle browed and twenty-four, was wowing them in Vienna with his Piano Concerto no.2, and Ned Rise was drinking Strip-Me-Naked with Nan Punt and Sally Sebum at the Pig & Pox Tavern in Maiden Lane." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: John on the Sunset Coast Date: 26 Feb 07 - 08:18 PM In one of his "It All Started With..." books, Richard Armour, in describing cave man life wrote to the effect that the cave man looked for a double-breasted sabre-toothed tiger (for a suit), and a woman similarly endowed. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: katlaughing Date: 26 Feb 07 - 11:59 PM Not strange, really, but pure Magic, as the Mudcat used to know, were the opening lines of most of the story threads, including the first one, as started by LonesomeEJ from THIS THREAD: It was a slow Tuesday afternoon. I sent Mona home early because the phone hadn't rung all day- maybe the phone company had finally made good on their threats and shut me off. I'm Blake Madison, and I'm a private dick. It's a business that's like being married to a beautiful two-timing dame; one evening it's sweet wine and silk kisses, the next you're sleeping in the backseat of a Studebaker with the neighbors cat. Or, how about this one from the inimitable PeterT (same thread): She was all folksinger. She was built like one of those early Martins, curves in all the right places, but with strings attached. As she came in the room, the shag carpeting on the floor separated to let her pass through. There's more WHERE those came from. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Amos Date: 27 Feb 07 - 10:49 AM The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks. It was his subconscious which told him this - that infuriating part of a person's brain which never responds to interrogation, merely gives little meaningful nudges and then sits humming quietly to itself, saying nothing. Dirk was unused to making such a minuscule impact on anybody. He checked to be sure that he did have his huge leather coat and his absurd red hat on and that he was properly and dramatically silhouetted by the light of the doorway. He felt momentarily deflated and said, "Er..." by way of self-introduction, but it didn't get the boy's attention. He didn't like this. The kid was deliberately and maliciously watching television at him. "A suffusion of yellow." (A calculator's response to the question of any math problem with an answer larger than four.) (All from Douglas Adams, the most ineffable writer since Chaucer). A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Amos Date: 27 Feb 07 - 10:53 AM ANd a few more: Here the man in blue crimplene accosted us once more but we patiently explained to him that he could fuck off. Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. The great thing about being the only species that makes a distinction between right and wrong is that we can make up the rules for ourselves as we go along. The system of life on this planet is so astoundingly complex that it was a long time before man even realised that it was a system at all and that it wasn't something that was just there. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh Date: 27 Feb 07 - 02:46 PM John Ireland, "Archimedes and the Seagle": "I wrote this book to show what dogs can do." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh Date: 27 Feb 07 - 02:47 PM "Such was the depravity of the times, she preferred the timorous touchings of the eunuch to the ponderous ballocks of the Emperor". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: leeneia Date: 27 Feb 07 - 03:01 PM I've got one, not actually crazy, but it certainly takes some decoding. It's from a mystery story. The narrator gets a visit from her friend, who gives her a hug. Then comes the sentence: I pulled back slowly, careful not to spill the coffee I still held on to her white three-quarter-length sleeve wrap top. Kyra Davis. "Passion, Betrayal, and Killer Highlights." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Jack Campin Date: 27 Feb 07 - 03:15 PM The dedication from Lee-Ann Burgess's "Making Beautiful Bras": This book is dedicated to my lovely mother Rae Burke (who taught her over enthusiastic daughter to sew), to Val Samuelson (for her generosity), to my husband Rod (who graciously allows his home to look like a bra factory) and last but certainly not least, to the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, who created breasts in the first place and has taught me how to make bras beautiful enough to be worn on them. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,meself Date: 27 Feb 07 - 04:34 PM Methinks she spilled a comma ... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,meself Date: 27 Feb 07 - 04:45 PM Cross-posting there - my previous post referred to leeneia's post ... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,Dr X Date: 21 Jan 08 - 01:24 PM If you wanna find some strange sentences, check out this book called The Rosalixion (it's online for free download), you'll find it here: http://www.artsetfree.com ;p |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Mrrzy Date: 21 Jan 08 - 01:29 PM Almost anything in My Life And Hard Times by James Thurber. (Some nights she threw them all, some nights only a couple of pair.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: skipy Date: 21 Jan 08 - 04:17 PM 32 years 8 months & 3 days, that would be a "strange sentence" but where would you serve it? & how would the book know that you reported to a prison? Skipy |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Mrrzy Date: 21 Jan 08 - 07:18 PM The way is long and getting longer. Strike the light or light a lantern! Something I have hold of has no head. (More Thurber, from The Thirteen Clocks and The Wonderful O.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: A Wandering Minstrel Date: 22 Jan 08 - 08:15 AM A couple of great stories Mrrzy which also include the memorable lines "Even his indescibable hat was suddenly describable" and "'Squck his Thrug!' shrieked the parrot" and from Norton Justers, The Phantom Tollboth comes Milo drove down a road that looked suspiciously like The Wrong Way!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,Bookmark Date: 17 Feb 08 - 03:50 PM "When i was a mud cat, i though to myself i licked in my disorder........discombobulated!" This sentence is from a very old book called "Midnight Grasshopper". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Ebbie Date: 17 Feb 08 - 07:18 PM I've forgotten where I read an account of an encounter between a dog and a disaster. The dog ran off, "whelping all the way". From a thriller: As I came around the corner of the barn I was confronted by an angry Hereford bull, his black hide glistening in the bright sun. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Rapparee Date: 17 Feb 08 - 09:30 PM Let's see: In "Silas Marner" it's written (Chapter IV) that Dunstan takes a drink from "his pocket-pistol." "Not the white bull Jupiter swimming away with ravished Europa clinging to his graceful horns; his lovely, leering eyes sideways intent upon the maid; with smooth bewitching fleetness, rippling straight for the nuptial bower in Crete; not Jove, not that great majesty Supreme! did surpass the glorified White Whale as he so divinely swam." --Moby-Dick "Our history must needs retrograde for the space of a few pages, to inform the reader of certain passages materials to his understanding of the rest of this important narrative." --Ivanoe (Scott was being paid by the word, I assume) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: topical tom Date: 18 Feb 08 - 08:24 AM In books by well-known authors that I have read I keep finding sentences similar to this: "He crept cautiously toward the shed and,upon reaching it, shined the light from his flashlight through the small side-window." Shined?Whatever happened to the word "shone"?Has it been cast forever into the pit of non-usage or is it still among the living English words?I note this terminology with many well-known authors. Did the movie "The Shining" condemn "shone" to death? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 18 Feb 08 - 10:30 AM Topical Tom, you commented: Shined?Whatever happened to the word "shone"?Has it been cast forever into the pit of non-usage or is it still among the living English words? Part of the great (as in "huge", not as in "wonderful") movement in the English language to regularize verbs, casting away forms of verbs which don't conform to the pedestrian "-ed" past and past-perfect tense. I miss such progressions as "strive, strove, striven". I predict that soon you'll hear "drive, drived, drived" (shudder, shudder). Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Snuffy Date: 18 Feb 08 - 11:13 AM In my experience "shined" is far less often met than "shone". Indeed I was not aware that "shine" has different past tenses for transitive and intransitive use, but that seems to be what's happening here: "shone" means simply "did shine", whereas "shined" means "made something shine" He shined the flashlight through the window; the flashlight shone brightly. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Ebbie Date: 18 Feb 08 - 03:32 PM To me, 'shined' denotes polishing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: topical tom Date: 18 Feb 08 - 05:45 PM Perhaps this solves the problem. shined One entry found. shine[1,verb] Main Entry: 1shine Listen to the pronunciation of 1shine Pronunciation: \ˈshīn\ Function: verb Inflected Form(s): shone Listen to the pronunciation of shone Listen to the pronunciation of shone \ˈshōn, especially Canada & British ˈshän\ or shined; shin·ing Etymology: Middle English, from Old English scīnan; akin to Old High German skīnan to shine and perhaps to Greek skia shadow Date: before 12th century intransitive verb1: to emit rays of light2: to be bright by reflection of light3 a: to be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Don Firth Date: 18 Feb 08 - 06:15 PM Not exactly literary, but I recall a gas station that had a small lunch counter attached. Eight stools, and they served light fare such as sandwiches, chili, pie, coffee, that sort of thing. Sign in back of the counter said, "Eat here and get gas." Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Rowan Date: 18 Feb 08 - 07:43 PM Tom and Dave wrought wonders with their use of language; thank goodness they avoided "wreaked". Cheers, Rowan |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: meself Date: 18 Feb 08 - 11:23 PM "Call me Ishmael." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: number 6 Date: 19 Feb 08 - 12:03 AM "Death is not anything... death is not...It's the absence of presence, nothing more...the endless time of never coming back...a gap you can't see, and when the wind blows through it, it makes no sound' ... from the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea biLL |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,MRS FLANNERY- Date: 19 Feb 08 - 03:34 PM "If I only knew then ,what I still dont know------!! The known unknown and the unknown unknown" Anyone know the source of this verbal dysentry ? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: john f weldon Date: 19 Feb 08 - 03:49 PM Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl is, despite its title, a novel. And a gem; loaded with weird non-sequiturs and very unlikely metaphors. Most of the sentences in it would count as rather strange. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,MRS FLANNERY- Date: 19 Feb 08 - 03:56 PM Yes john f ---and Flann O Brien in The Third Policeman does the same ligistic conundrums |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: Ebbie Date: 19 Feb 08 - 04:59 PM The clock struck thirteen... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Strange Sentences from Books From: GUEST,PMB Date: 20 Feb 08 - 03:30 AM I recently read a book about New France (French Canada), in which the author stated that the French built a fort "at the bottom of Lake Huron". That would hide it from the redcoats, though it might be difficult to keep the powder dry. |
