Since that morning, before the first light, a gay, picnic-going throng of aeromaniacs of one sort and another had been continuing all day now to vol-à-voile in, till long after sundown, through the midwestern summer evening whose fading light they were most of them too busy quite to catch the melancholy of, their wings both stationary and a-flap, gull and albatross and bat-styled wings, wings of gold-beaters' skin and bamboo, wings laboriously detailed with celluloid feathers, in a great heavenwide twinkling they came, bearing all degrees of aviator from laboratory skeptic to Jesus-rapt ascensionary, accompanied often by sky-dogs, who had learned how to sit still, crowded next to them in the steering-cabins of their small airships, observing the instrument panels and barking if they noticed something the pilot had failed to—though others could be observed at gunwales and flying bridges, their heads thrust out into the passing airflow, looks of bliss on their faces.
* * * * * * * * * *
This is how long I was hoping all of Pynchon's sentences would be so I would have to do fewer blog entries.
First off, notice how Pynchon calls the setting sun "melancholy"? That's what I said in my last blog post because I was paying attention! It was melancholy before Pynchon told me it was melancholy! It worked for two reasons: Pynchon is a genius writer able to get his point across and I am a genius reader able to pick up on Pynchon's genius.
Let's just go over some terms here in the style that I developed a few lines ago and which I wish I'd developed from the beginning.
"gay, picnic-going throng"
In the 1890s, an enjoyable time was always described as being gay and the most gay thing you could do was go on a picnic. The throng part just means a lot of gay people were there.
"aeromaniacs"
Like this word didn't get the Animaniacs themes song stuck in your head too.
"vol-à-voile"
This is just French for gliding according to Google translate. I added the caveat because it's, you know, Google translate. It cannot be trusted. For all I know, this is actually French for sex lube.
"through the midwestern summer evening"
This is just finishing up the bit about how long all of these aeromaniacs were landing and picnicking. From morning to evening!
The next part of the sentence describes all the different flying machines visiting the Chicago World's Fair. Pynchon imagines quite a few flying machines that almost certainly would never have flown out of any single field let alone into this one.
"gull and albatross and bat-styled wings"
These are styles of wings based on birds. And, um, a mammal. Gull wings are different from albatross wings because gull wings are meant for flapping around madly as they steal your chips and albatross wings are made for gliding for months and flying mice to save kidnapped young girls. Bat wings are for flapping crazily and getting caught in people's hair.
"wings of gold-beaters' skin and bamboo"
You know what bamboo is but what about gold-beaters' skin? It's cow guts used in the process of making gold leaf. So if you simply assumed the gold leaf on your super expensive dessert was vegan, now you know better!
"celluloid feathers"
Feathers that have been in the movies.
"all degrees of aviator from laboratory skeptic to Jesus-rapt ascensionary"
People into flying through the sky range from scientists to loony bin religionists trying to return to heaven. If you think the term "loony bin" is offensive, you're right because it literally means the trash receptacle where we toss people with mental health problems that we can't be bothered to help. So I apologize for using it. Instead of "loony bin preachers," I should have said "victims of religious brainwashing."
The last part of the sentence describes how a lot of these pilots are big dog lovers and have taught their dogs not to fall out of their airships. How do you teach a dog not to fall out of an airship? That's a trick question! The answer is that any dog that happens to not fall out of an airship looks like a dog that was trained not to fall out of an airship. It's probably just as many dogs perished on the way to the Fair as survived!
Plus in a time when this was the only fast way to travel, Pynchon imagines dogs getting their first experience of hanging their heads out of the car windows and loving it.
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