"Like me to break out some of them parachute rigs, Noseworth?" drawled Chick.
* * * * * * * * * *
Chick isn't actually from the South but I guess he spent enough time there to develop a drawl. I suppose, technically, you can drawl even if you're from other regions of the world but I wouldn't recommend it.
The parachute was invented nearly a hundred years previous to this story so I did one of those "Aw shucks!" movements with my arms in my disappointment in not catching Pynchon committing an anachronistic error. I know, I know! As if he'd mess up with something so obvious! But that's where you're going to have to catch him! With the big things that nobody would bother to research! He'll be all, "Dragons went extinct in 1632" and you'll think, "Yeah, okay, sounds legit." But then if you do the research, you'll be all, "Wait a minute! Dragons NEVER existed!"
That was just a hypothetical piece of fan fiction in which I catch Thomas Pynchon making an error. Here's a piece of historical fiction that you'll enjoy:
The man who didn't invent the parachute but may as well claim to have, André-Jacques Garnerin, died in a balloon accident when he was preparing to test a new parachute. If only he'd had a . . . wait a second! I think I need more details about this accident. I bet it was something like, "Garnerin got into an argument with his wife as they began to ascend and she shot him in the face with her cleavage pistol before they got high enough for him to test his parachute."
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