Author: Jordy Greenblatt
10/10/10
In this column on McSweeney's , Jordy Greenblatt writes a comical reflective essay on the history of him piloting aircraft with his eyes closed. His recitation of the events leading up to this involve him having to make multiple emergency stops and having the most deaths of any of the other pilots.
He uses simple diction to make it so that the reader does not spend any time looking at the words but can concentrate on what he is actually saying. The syntax that is used is repetitive, he uses yes and no to start sentences to hammer home the ridiculous things he is saying. He does a similar thing when he starts his sentences with “you”, it is to show that he is directly addressing the reader when he is speaker, later in the account the reader finds out why he is addressing them so obviously, he is the pilot of the plane the readers on.
The strength of this essay is the strong connection to the reader made by the syntax, and the ease of the read because of the diction. It also has a strong shock value at the end when the reader realizes they are on the plane with this crazy pilot. The weakness is that this there is not much depth to this story, it is limited to what can be seen at face value. Other than the allusion to Star Wars there are not any connections to other texts or archetypes.
The author takes a comical tone when describing his exploits. He does this be saying things like, “but the first time I tried it they really chewed me out”. These short sentences with common joking and funny phrases lead the reader to think that he is kidding and it is perfectly reasonable to look at everything he says as ridiculous. It makes his message less serious and he loses the ability to make a moving relevant message.
His tone is not appropriate for an AP exam at all because the joking manner in an AP exam would allow for the audience to ignore what the writer has to say because by taking that tone the writer loses the status of a reliable source.
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