How bad is this writing? It’s so bad…
Paul Boutin has the winners of this year’s Bulwer-Lytton awards (named in honor of the novelist responsible for the prototypical worst opening line in history: “It was a dark and stormy night.”)
Here’s #10:
“As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it.”
Go read the rest. This year’s winners are an excellent crop. Of course, by excellent, I mean wretchedly bad.
Come on – at least half of those are intentionally funny. It’s not fair to take the first line of a comedy and call it bad literature. Farting in an echo chamber…Mike Hardware…Santa as a beefsteak tomato. Combine these into one novel and you’ve got comedic GOLD!
Heh. It’s a parody contest. RTFA. Duh.