| Author |
Sharkey, Jack, 1931-1992 |
| Title |
Minor Detail
|
| Note |
Reading ease score: 75.5 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
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| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
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| Summary |
"Minor Detail" by Jack Sharkey is a satirical science fiction short story first published in the late 1950s. The narrative centers around the farcical military endeavors of General "Smiley" Webb and his ambitious plan to deploy troops using an innovative yet absurd contraption called the Whirligig. The story explores themes of military bureaucracy and the folly of over-complicated solutions to fundamental problems of warfare. The plot unfolds with Secretary of Defense James Whitlow's visit to observe General Webb's top-secret project, designed to land soldiers safely in enemy territory without traditional parachutes. Webb's unorthodox method involves subjecting soldiers to extreme centrifugal forces in the Whirligig to prepare them for high-altitude jumps. However, the demonstration goes hilariously awry, leading to a disastrous outcome where the soldiers fall head-first rather than landing safely. The story ends with the general fainting in shock, highlighting the absurdity inherent in his ambitious plans. Through humor and irony, Sharkey critiques military thinking and the push for conflict in a time marked by fragile peace. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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| Language |
English |
| LoC Class |
PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature
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| Subject |
Science fiction
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| Subject |
Short stories
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| Category |
Text |
| EBook-No. |
28156 |
| Release Date |
Feb 23, 2009 |
| Most Recently Updated |
Jan 4, 2021 |
| Copyright Status |
Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads |
70 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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