Earlier this week, Australian musician Ben Lee joined me for some 5AM StoryTalk (which you can listen to that here if you haven’t already). Today, Ben returns for a bonus episode in which he discusses a foundational piece of art from his life — the iconic short story “The Balloon” by Donald Barthelme, first published in The New Yorker in 1966.
You can read “The Balloon” here in anticipation of listening to this bonus chat (it’s barely six pages!).
Barthelme is a celebrate postmodern author whose work often skews toward the surreal like this short story that is a first person accounting of the appearance of a massive irregularly shaped balloon over New York City that stretches from 14th Street to Central Park. What is the balloon and what does it mean?
At 5AM StoryTalk, I like to discuss the role of the audience or the viewer in a piece of art how we’re a participant in the story and, as a result, a kind of co-author of its meaning. “The Balloon” is the epitome of this.
If you’d like to listen to this bonus episode with Ben, but aren’t yet a paid subscriber yourself, you can upgrade now for $6 US a month or $60 a year. For that, you get full access to hundreds of articles and educational resources for screenwriters, arts seminars where you can seek direct help from me, and all of my podcast episodes — including bonus episodes — weeks, sometimes months earlier than you would if you subscribed to me at, say, Apple or Spotify. Most importantly, you help keep this independent media experiment alive with your support - thank you!
Don’t forget to listen to the first part of my conversation with Ben!
Oh, and subscribe to Ben’s Substack, Weirder Together, which he writes with his wife Ione Skye!
