The First Line

How should a radio piece begin? Do you give the news? Introduce the main character? Or grab the listener by the ear and tug? I was grabbed recently by the first line of a piece on WNYC’s Studio 360. The show from September 29th was partly of a ‘best of’ -- as many previous guests received MacArthur Genius Grants this year. The piece here on Shahzia Sikander has a wild first line. I’m not going to write it here yet. Go listen to it. You’ll have to wait out the mundane, even off-putting introduction.



Okay, are you done? Here it is.

“I recently almost left a cheek smear on a 450 -year-old piece of art. But really, I had to. It was the only way I could get close enough.”

The reason why I love this is that I instantly get two vivid images – one of some woman with her face pressed against the glass of a tiny painting, and in the other, I see a painting clearly in my mind’s eye, as if I’m the one smearing MY cheek against the glass. And, actually, I also see the smear after the fact.