Opening lines

Have you ever been hooked on a novel literally from the first line? Those (in most cases) few well chosen words are the door to the story. All the involuntary visions and flashing images it can conjure when teamed up with your brain, huh?

I took a dive with Midjourney into the opening lines from some well known - and maybe some lesser known, personal favorite - novels. And mind you, the only text in each prompt (except some parameter variations) is the exact actual opening line. Iterations are of course plentiful, but hey that's part of the fun innit?

Scroll down for some example prompts ⤵️

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"I am a sick man . . . a spiteful man."

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground.

"It was hope undid them."

Clive Barker, Weaveworld.

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis.

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

William Gibson, Neuromancer.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

Stephen King, The Dark Tower.

"I am an invisible man."

H. G. Wells, The invisible man

"He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish."

Ernest Hemingway, The old man and the sea.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.

"His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before."

Isaac Asimov, Foundation.

"The air was electric the day the thief crossed the city, certain that night, after so many weeks of frustration, he would finally find the card-player."

Clive Barker, The Damnation Game.

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold."

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

"I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why."

H. P. Lowecraft, At The Mountains of Madness.

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Hope you dig the experiment - and the outcome - as much as I do. Of course they'd look different were I to modify the text or add further details and specifications to it (after all in several of these cases I already have self made images in my head after reading the books myself), but I think the fun here is seeing what MJ comes up with by itself. Try out some of your own favorite quotes or opening lines and see what you get!

Here's the prompt examples as promised. Play around with aspect ratio and other parameters as you please 😎

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Example 1

Prompt:

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.. --ar 6:5 --s 1000 --style raw --v 6.0 --w 110

Example 2

Prompt:

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. --ar 6:5 --s 750 --style raw --w 1000 --v 6.0

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Have fun!