The balloon, beginning at a point on Fourteenth Street, the exact location of which I ot reveal, expanded northward all one night, while people were sleeping, until it reached the Park. There, I stopped it; at dawn the northernmost edges lay over the Plaza; the free-hanging motion was frivo?lous ale. But experieng a faint irritation at stopping, even to protect the trees, and seeing no reason the balloon should not be allowed to expand upward, over the parts of the city it was already c, into the "air space" to be found there, I asked the engio see to it. This expan?sion took place throughout the m, soft imperceptible sighing of gas through the valves. The balloon then covered forty-five bloorth-south and an irregular area east-west, as many as six crosstown blocks oher side of the Avenue in some places. That was the situation, then.
But it is wrong to speak of "situations," implyis of circumstances leading to some resolution, some escape of tension; there were no situations, simply the balloon hanging there -- muted heavy grays and browns for the most part, trasting with walnut and soft yellows. A deliberate lack of finish, enhanced by skillful installation, gave the surface a rough, fotten quality; slidis on the inside, carefully adjusted, anchored the great, vari-shaped mass at a number of points. Now we have had a flood inal ideas in all media, works of singular beauty as well as signifit mile?stones in the history of inflation, but at that moment there was only this balloon, crete particular, hanging there.
There were reas. Some people found the balloon "iing." As a respohis seemed ie to the immensity of the balloon, the suddenness of its appearance over the city; oher hand, in the absence of hysteria or other societally-induced ay, it must be judged a calm, "mature" ohere was a certain amount of initial argumentation about the "meaning" of the balloon; this subsided, because we have learned not to insist on meanings, and they are rarely even looked for now, except in cases involving the simplest, safest phenomena. It was agreed that sihe meaning of the balloon could never be known absolutely, extended discussion ointless, or at least less purposeful thaivities of those who, for ex?ample, hung green and blue paper lanterns from the warm gray underside, iain streets, or seized the occasion to write messages on the sur?face, announg their availability for the perfor?mance of unnatural acts, or the availability of acquaintances.
Daring children jumped, especially at those points where the balloon hovered close to a build?ing, so that the gap between balloon and building was a matter of a few inches, or points where the balloon actually made tact, exerting an ever-so-slight pressure against the side of a building, so that balloon and building seemed a unity. The upper surface was so structured that a "landscape" resented, small valleys as well as slight knolls, or mounds; oop the balloon, a stroll os?sible, or even a trip, from one place to ahere leasure in being able to run down an ine, then up the opposing slope, both gently graded, or in making a leap from one side to the other. Boung ossible, because of the picity of the surface, and even falling, if that was your wish. That all these varied motions, as well as others, were within ones possibilities, in experieng the "up" side of the balloon, was extremely exg for children, aced to the citys flat, hard skin. But the purpose of the balloon was not to amuse chil