Full of Hot Air + +

1) There is a GW short story about a hot air balloon. What is it called (or even about)? I believe it is in Endangered Species but I am far from certain. In the introduction, GW says something about a writing exercise -- what if something was invented much earlier than it was? Any other story fit this general "writing exercise" format? 2) Reading over the posts, I get a general sense of the novels that are favored, but which collection of shorter works stands ahead from the pack? This is not a call for an offlist poll, unless people want one... 3) As a teen in the mid 1980's, I discovered GW in my local library (in Montreal). I was puzzled because the library had the first three volumes of the Book of the New Sun but not the final volume (it had already been published, at least in hardcover). Years later in another Montreal library, I discovered the same thing - volumes 1-3, but not the finale. Any ideas why or just random circumstances, coincidence?

"Against the Lafatette Escadrille" I think (spelling dicy) hartshorn ----- Original Message -----

Lafayette. This is a great story, or prose poem or whatever it is exactly. One of my very favorites. My wife knows how to do Flash animation, and it has always been in the back of my mind to do an animated version of either this or Last Day, but so far the actual will to do so has eluded me. Perhaps some day. .

Good guess, but I think "Straw" (collected in STOREYS FROM THE OLD HOTEL) is the one in question. =mantis=

Oh probably. Another good story. Not, in my opinion, on the same level as 'Against The Lafayette Escadrille', but good. .

Actually, I just happened to have read it. It's called "Straw", from Storeys from the Old Hotel, about what would happen had the hot air balloon been invented in 500 AD. -----Original Message----- From: MBS 808 [mailto:mbs808 at yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 7:59 AM To: urth at urth.net Subject: (urth) Full of Hot Air + + 1) There is a GW short story about a hot air balloon. What is it called (or even about)? I believe it is in Endangered Species but I am far from certain. In the introduction, GW says something about a writing exercise -- what if something was invented much earlier than it was? Any other story fit this general "writing exercise" format? 2) Reading over the posts, I get a general sense of the novels that are favored, but which collection of shorter works stands ahead from the pack? This is not a call for an offlist poll, unless people want one... 3) As a teen in the mid 1980's, I discovered GW in my local library (in Montreal). I was puzzled because the library had the first three volumes of the Book of the New Sun but not the final volume (it had already been published, at least in hardcover). Years later in another Montreal library, I discovered the same thing - volumes 1-3, but not the finale. Any ideas why or just random circumstances, coincidence?