Chapter 1: Section 2: Pages 10-11: Line 8 (113)

 Close to sundown, south of the city, as the Inconvenience bobbed in fitful breezes above a sweeping stretch of prairie which was to be the site this week of the great international gathering of aeronauts being held in conjunction with the World's Fair, "Professor" St. Cosmo, spying at length a clear patch of meadow among the vast population of airships already berthed below, had given the order, "Prepare to descend."

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When do we get the entertaining Three's Company-esque misunderstanding that garnered Cosmo the nickname of "Professor"? If you're not familiar with Three's Company because you're young, it was a sitcom in which the premise of every joke was that the landlord only let the guy live with the two gals because he thought the guy was gay but then every time he eavesdropped on the guy and the gals talking, he would think they were talking about fucking and he'd get super upset until he found out they were really just talking about baking a cake or something and then he'd wipe the sweat from his brow and say, "I knew Jack was totally gay the whole time!" Then the audience would laugh and Chrissy's nipples would show through her shirt.

Chrissy's nipples probably accounted for 40 percent of the audience.

I'm not sure it's relevant or, if it is, how but we get a lot of "declining" imagery in this sentence: "sundown," "south," "descend." Maybe it's all a metaphor for the balloons landing at their aeronaut Comic-con.

During the first chapter, the reader may have thought the Chums of Chance were a unique occurrence in Pynchon's 1893. But now we see it's a huge hobby with a "vast population." The world must be filled with fictional books of all of their exploits, right? I wonder if there's another crew called the Lads of Law who travel with a cat who writes poetry?

I bet Cosmo's statement, "Prepare to descend," has a greater meaning than just landing the balloon. The Chums of Chance are not just going terrestrial in the sense that they're leaving the sky and hitting the ground; they're probably also descending into a more vulgar world, filled with vice and intrigue and earthly lusts. They are very much descending from a kind of wondrous and pure heaven into a lawless and (hopefully) sexy world full of sinners!