Above him, Darby, with a triumphant "Hurrah!" succeeded in closing the valve, and the huge airship accordingly slackened in its downward hurtling to a velocity no more ominous than that of a leaf in autumn.
* * * * * * * * * *
The use of the word "hurrah" was most popular in the 1860s with a second wave of popularity (although not quite as popular) in the 1890s. So Darby chooses the right expression to celebrate his success in closing the valve.
I hope with the mention of the leaf on the wind, Darby isn't about to get pierced through the chest in the next line.
Anyway, with the closing of the valve, the slapstick scene of the crashing airship has ended. Oh! Was this a parody of Airplane!? Probably!
I should begin a section for the stupid readers that begins after the main section of my discussion. It would look something like this:
"Pynchon compares the descending airship to a leaf in autumn because autumn is the time of year when the leaves fall from their trees. Unless you're in Australia and then it's when the leaves grow back on the trees. That's because the Earth isn't flat, you idiots. Geez!"
I bet if you surprised a Flat Earther at some point when nobody was arguing about the Earth and you were all, "DRAW A PICTURE OF THE EARTH! QUICK!", I bet they'd draw it round. But then you'd say, "A-ha! You don't actually think it's flat!" And then they'd show you the two-dimensional paper they drew the Earth on and say, "Touché!" (because they're dumb) But then you'd be all, "Oh really? Then why does your dumb round two-dimensional Earth only have three unrecognizable continents on it! I mean, you don't have to explain to me why they're unrecognizable. I get it. You suck at geography, what with being so stupid and all. Where are the other continents?!" Then they'd probably draw them on the back side of the paper and you'd wind up in a huge discussion about why the Chinese don't fall off the world and you'll want to kill yourself when the person replies, "Chinese Magna-Lock Boot Technology. Duh!"
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