Across the herbaceous nap below, in the declining light, among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags, running heedless, as across some earthly firmament, sped a stout gentleman in a Norfolk jacket and plus-fours, clutching a straw "skimmer" to the back of his head with one hand while with the other keeping balanced upon his shoulder a photographic camera and tripod.
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The first half of this sentence is just pure Pynchonian description of the space inhabited by the two tiny figures below the Inconvenience. The field they're running across is described as a kind of material where the herbs and plants are the raised texture. The field is rather dark due to the sun going down, making it look like a night sky filled with stars created by the sand bursting from the bags dropped at a great height. Pynchon creates a nice contrasting image of a celestial tableaux writ across the surface of the Earth.
Running across this alien surface is a photographer and his equipment.
This is pretty much what he looks like minus the hat and the golf club and the pipe and plus the camera and the tripod.
The straw "skimmer" is the hat you probably think it is. It's the hats Abbott and Costello's cartoon caricatures (among others) are wearing in the cartoon "Strolling Thru the Park." Also Mickey Mouse wears one in the Disney film, The Nifty Nineties while the song "Strolling Through the Park" plays. So basically if you're strolling through the park in the 1890s, you should be wearing a straw "skimmer" aka a boater and a whole lot of other AKAs (even though the song mentions a derby).
We'll learn more about this guy and what he has to do with being against the day or needing light against the night or something. You know, he's into photography which is all about light and dark! That's probably important!
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