Is This a Real Balloon?

The narrator really does inflate a balloon, s far as i'm concerned. The balloon is not just an ideathink. The bal really does cover part of the lower manhattan. So you have a balloon that's real, that's tactile, that's described in it in a concrete way. And yet is also seen or interpreted as a meta for a lot of things. In a way, it's a perfect metaphor. It's filled with helium, but it's also filled with longing. Well, that's the metaphorical part. But perhaps bartholmy felt grief and longing for a lover who had gone to norway. I think he must have, and maybe he