To my knowledge I don't know anyone who picks up novels, reads the first few sentences, then throws them away. Maybe people do this in airport bookstores, but I don't think Orwell, Ray Bradbury, or Kafka wrote with the ADHD audience in mind.
On the other hand I know that many readers hate to put a book down without giving it a fair shot.
The "catchy opening" design pattern is present in a lot of art where the audience has almost no chance of leaving, like Beethoven's 5th Symphony, or that famous opening shot with the star destroyer in "Star Wars". It's an artistic effect. Conversely, the "Harry Potter" novels have a mundane, slow first few chapters, and they did pretty well.
Actually, I think Harry Potter has a pretty strong opener:
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.
"To my knowledge I don't know anyone who picks up novels, reads the first few sentences, then throws them away. Maybe people do this in airport bookstores, but I don't think Orwell, Ray Bradbury, or Kafka wrote with the ADHD audience in mind."
Browsing is (was?) incredibly common in the bookstore era, and will become even more so in the modern era and beyond. Especially as digital sampling becomes more prevalent, and as the barrier to entry (price) comes down significantly. If anything, we'll see even more buy-and-then-browse behavior. And for what it's worth, book returns were prevalent in the heyday of the B&M bookstore, and they're a significant factor in Amazon's business to this day. (In fact, I'm willing to wager that quite a few people, even the highly literate ones, haven't read the majority of the books sitting on their shelves.)
Regardless, I'm not talking about the opening line as a sales proposition. I'm talking about the opening line as a gambit to get someone to keep reading when they first pick up the piece. How many times have you bought a book, or picked up a magazine, or clicked open a blog post, and simply lost interest after the opening paragraph? I'm not saying you immediately regret picking it up, but rather, that you think to yourself "Meh, I'll skip this one and read something else. Maybe I'll come back to it later." This behavior is pretty common, and by nature, the human attention span in limited. In no way am I talking about the "ADHD audience" here. I'm talking about basic human wiring.
As for Kafka, Orwell, et al., bear in mind that their initial audience was a reader at a publishing house, journal, or newspaper. Oftentimes, your first target reader is the one who decides whether or not to publish you in the first place. This person reads thousands of pieces a week, and getting his or her attention has been a crucial task since the invention of the printing press.
I think most novelists write with the intent to be read after they have some years of experience. It's the next, natural step. Whether that reader is at a publishing house or not is a little hard to know, especially in Kafka's case.
From what I've read and studied at university, Kafka wrote for his friends a lot. He shared his writings with them and they had a laugh. His pieces were known (by his friends) as dark comedies. Whereas in Western Europe and North America, they are read as existential pieces.
Kafka doubted many times that his novels and stories would ever be published because of their 'immoral' content. So, I'm interested in any further info you have that might suggest otherwise.
"Kafka doubted many times that his novels and stories would ever be published because of their 'immoral' content. So, I'm interested in any further info you have that might suggest otherwise."
To be frank, the subject of Kafka's authorly intent or personal inclinations is a bit tangential to my original point, and I'm not sure how we arrived here. I can tell, by your username, that Kafka is a subject of great personal interest. I share a love of his work, though I do not have any particularly privileged or scholarly insight into his history. I simply brought his name up because he wrote a great opening line to a great work, and because he wrote in an era in which readers' attention spans were every bit as precious as they are today.
I think my original point has been sidetracked: namely, that great opening sentences capture the reader's attention, and that the reader's attention is at a premium. That's the only point I ever set out to make in this thread. And I think the point remains valid.
On the other hand I know that many readers hate to put a book down without giving it a fair shot.
The "catchy opening" design pattern is present in a lot of art where the audience has almost no chance of leaving, like Beethoven's 5th Symphony, or that famous opening shot with the star destroyer in "Star Wars". It's an artistic effect. Conversely, the "Harry Potter" novels have a mundane, slow first few chapters, and they did pretty well.