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10/25/2009 11:35:17 PM
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Thomas R
Posts 3572
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What with the balloon boy incident or hoax perhaps a good thread on balloons and ballooning is in order. Balloons were also one of the first things in science fiction. I remember an SF anthology from a few years ago that concerned zeppelins. So have at it.
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"Not for a moment, beautiful aged Walt Whitman, have I failed to see your beard full of butterflies." Federico Garcia Lorca
"I was going down a long hallway, and at the end of it there was a bright light a kind man with a beard reaching his hand out to me, beckoning me, and he looked at me as I got closer.. and said: 'Hey buddy, can you spare some change? I want a cup of coffee!'" Tom Servo
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10/26/2009 3:08:01 PM
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Alex
Posts 1374
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Balooning was cutting edge SF in the 19 th Century.
Jules Verne wrote Five Weeks in a Balloon in 1863. Aeronauting through deepest dark Africa. (Largely unexplored at the time.)
And, of course, Around the World in 80 Days hads some balooning in it.
The not-so-well known sequel Tom Sawyer Abroad features a balloon flight from Mississippi to, and throughout, Egypt. (1894)
*
edited by Alex on 10/26/2009
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We try not to let over-zealous adherance to facts interfere with the spinning of a good yarn, or a bad joke.
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10/26/2009 4:32:07 PM
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Captain Mitty
Posts 396
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The Twenty-One Ballons, - written and illustrated by William Pène du Bois - was a popular book when I was a kid. It featured a Utopian, almost Steampunk society and the explosion of the island of Krakatoa.
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Nil significat, nisi oscillat.
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10/26/2009 4:48:14 PM
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GSH
Posts 431
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Balloons... I remember when "Up, Up and Away" by The Fifth Dimension seemed to be on whenever I turned on an AM radio. Brazil 66 gave it a new lease on life for a while. It's one of those old songs that seems to bring back a specific time and space.
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10/26/2009 5:33:05 PM
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Alex
Posts 1374
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GSH wrote:
Balloons... I remember when "Up, Up and Away" by The Fifth Dimension seemed to be on whenever I turned on an AM radio. Brazil 66 gave it a new lease on life for a while. It's one of those old songs that seems to bring back a specific time and space.
A Curse on you for mentioning that! It's already stuck...
As just revenge I give you 99 Luft ballons
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We try not to let over-zealous adherance to facts interfere with the spinning of a good yarn, or a bad joke.
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10/26/2009 6:30:49 PM
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GSH
Posts 431
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I can break any such revenge curse by cranking up Wolgemut's Michaeleska to full volume. Your revenge-curse demons flee in terror upon the approach of even worse demons. HA!
http://www.wolgemut.net/sounds/W1Michaeleska.mp3
(The CD is "Schauspeluden", in case anyone wants to acquire it or avoid it at all costs.)
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10/26/2009 6:59:19 PM
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GSH
Posts 431
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While unseemly, this mode of retalliation is arguably in accordance with the rules of engagement particular to the thread, since pipes are instruments having a balloon-like component...
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10/28/2009 9:59:02 PM
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Thomas R
Posts 3572
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I'd guess Pixar's Up would be the most recent balloon involved movie and it has some fantastical elements.
I remember a rather fanciful novel by Alexis Gilliland that had people travel through space by balloon or something rather like it. I think the balloon was like one of those Mylar balloons and they would zap some light or FTL wave or something on it to push it through space.
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"Not for a moment, beautiful aged Walt Whitman, have I failed to see your beard full of butterflies." Federico Garcia Lorca
"I was going down a long hallway, and at the end of it there was a bright light a kind man with a beard reaching his hand out to me, beckoning me, and he looked at me as I got closer.. and said: 'Hey buddy, can you spare some change? I want a cup of coffee!'" Tom Servo
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10/28/2009 11:08:27 PM
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gdozois
Posts 4314
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Gene Wolfe's little-known--and very entertaining--story "Straw" features people traveling by hot-air balloon across a quasi-medieval landscape.
As Thomas mentioned, there was a zeppelin anthology a couple of years back called, I think, ALL-STAR ZEPPELIN STORIES, edited by Chris Roberson. There've been lot of steampunk stories this year, and many of them mention zeppelins, which steampunk writers seem to love. The most recent is "Zeppelin City," by Michael Swanwick and Eileen Gunn, which is up on Tor.com right this very minute.
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10/29/2009 12:06:36 AM
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pc
Posts 2231
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Rather like Bob Shaw's The Wooden Spaceships.
Those air-space-craft are sort of balloonish.
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It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes -- Douglas Adams
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10/29/2009 8:16:15 AM
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dolphintornsea
Posts 529
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Balloons are really big in early science fiction. In fact, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" is, in the opinion of some, the very first piece of short science fiction. A case can be made for Frankenstein and possibly other books as the first SF novel, but in short SF, there is nothing earlier.
In Poe's story, there is a tenuous atmosphere all the way between the Earth and the moon, allowing a balloon to make the passage. I have a copy of the story in which the author appends some fascinating notes, complaining about the lack of scientific veracity of some other contemporary balloon stories. His approach was very sfnal indeed.
Thomas, I think the Zeppelin story you refer to at the beginning of this thread was by Stephen Baxter; the first one in The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction. It was in Gardner's YBSF too ... I think it was called "The Pacific Mystery".
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10/29/2009 8:19:10 AM
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Bill Moonroe
Posts 4528
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I'd like to see a story in which Balloon Boy takes on the Bubble Boy from Seinfeld.
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"A thagizer? What's that do? Hey, what's this button for? Uh-oh. Sorry about that, man. It'll grow back, right?"
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11/7/2009 1:41:07 PM
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Marian
Posts 3065
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Analog had a series of stories about giant balloon colonies. Here's a link to the author's explanation of how they'd work http://www.analogsf.com/0603/SunofSuns.aspx
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"Know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."
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11/7/2009 2:21:47 PM
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Bill Moonroe
Posts 4528
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Did anyone see the special Balloon Boy episode of Mythbusters this last week? I wanted to stay up for it, but was running out of gas.
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"A thagizer? What's that do? Hey, what's this button for? Uh-oh. Sorry about that, man. It'll grow back, right?"
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11/7/2009 3:34:26 PM
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pc
Posts 2231
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We can't forget the blimp-ish Jupiter craft in Clarke's "A Meeting with Medusa."
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It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes -- Douglas Adams
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11/7/2009 4:23:19 PM
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Alex
Posts 1374
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Bill Moonroe wrote:
Did anyone see the special Balloon Boy episode of Mythbusters this last week? I wanted to stay up for it, but was running out of gas.
They did get the kid off of the ground; but it took a thousand more balloons than estimated. (3500 total, iirc )
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We try not to let over-zealous adherance to facts interfere with the spinning of a good yarn, or a bad joke.
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11/7/2009 7:19:16 PM
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Bill Moonroe
Posts 4528
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Please tell me the balloons were made of C4 or filled with liquid nitrogen, or something like that.
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"A thagizer? What's that do? Hey, what's this button for? Uh-oh. Sorry about that, man. It'll grow back, right?"
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11/7/2009 7:23:36 PM
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Madison Bridgen
Posts 338
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Speaking of Up:
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We are currently living in the Dinosaurs' post-apocalyptic world.
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11/19/2009 10:58:20 PM
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Marian
Posts 3065
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Up is a good, fun movie and surprisingly touching. Uplifting one could say. (Bad joke).
Karl Schroeder's Sun of Suns-people live in something like giant balloons.
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"Know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."
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11/22/2009 2:22:38 AM
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Thomas R
Posts 3572
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Marian wrote:
Up is a good, fun movie and surprisingly touching. Uplifting one could say. (Bad joke).
Karl Schroeder's Sun of Suns-people live in something like giant balloons.
I think it's neat how Pixar does things you wouldn't necessarily expect in "kids films" and succeeds at it. I mean a movie about an elderly widower and an overweight Asian American boy is not exactly what I would've thought would be "the year's big animated film" once upon a time. Granted that description makes it sound like a G-rated version of Gran Torino when it does have talking dogs and a floating house, but still neat.
--
"Not for a moment, beautiful aged Walt Whitman, have I failed to see your beard full of butterflies." Federico Garcia Lorca
"I was going down a long hallway, and at the end of it there was a bright light a kind man with a beard reaching his hand out to me, beckoning me, and he looked at me as I got closer.. and said: 'Hey buddy, can you spare some change? I want a cup of coffee!'" Tom Servo
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