Re:The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
by dang on Tuesday May 20, 2014 @12:39AM
(#7771268)
That's not unduly convoluted for Victorian English. It's mostly concrete language that sets up a scene pretty well. I'd say it isn't half bad, and surely not the worst opening sentence of any English novel. There has to be some other reason why it acquired that status.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
If you're familiar with Victorian writing styles, including "Purple
Prose," then Bulwer-Lytton is merely an example of the era in much the
same way as Shakespeare is an example of his era of Modern English.
Charles Shculz, the creator of the Peanuts comic, regularly poked fun at Bulwer-Lytton's "It was a dark and stormy night..." until it became a running joke. Since Peanuts was published for nearly 50 years, the joke was well known.
The Bulwer-Lytton writing contest started quite a long time ago (80's) at San Jose State University, but I remember it was originally called a "Bad Writing Contest." Some support for my failing meatware memory can be found here:
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/about.html
The only fashion that never goes out of style is poking fun at past fashions.