dragongulpscar
September 26th, 2007, 06:15 PM
26 September 2007
Arrghhh! Did you ever have one of those days? (weeks, months, years...)
I've been trying (without success) to find a science fiction short story that I read many years ago... (And maybe it borders on fantasy fiction)..
The storyline is something like this...
A man and a woman take off for a short trip in their flying car (sometime in the not too distant future) and all is going well when... woops! Their entire vehicle is swallowed by a dragon (or maybe a gryphon or griffin or similar larged winged reptile with a big gullet...)
And then the big flying reptile dies of indigestion, and crash lands somewhere in a nearby wilderness...
Meanwhile, back inside of the vehicle, the car is taking care of its occupants, providing them with shelter, water, food, air conditioning, bathroom facilities and more... slowly the life support systems degrade... and eventually the animal rots away enough so they can make their escape.
As the car designers did not adequately provide enough safety systems, the owners of the car successfully sued the car manufacturer - so they won big $$ damages, and the car company changed their design as a result.
That's the story - short and funny and memorable... but I can't remember where I saw it (probably in an anthology) and I thought maybe it was by Ursula K. Le Guin, but I am not sure she was the author...
If anyone has an idea of the title and/or author - I'd appreciate it. I've Googled for a few hours, and could not find any trace of this wonderful short story. I know that somebody else must have read this story, and if you could help me reconnect with it... I'd be much obliged.
Thanks in advance!
signed,
Dragongulpscar
Arrghhh! Did you ever have one of those days? (weeks, months, years...)
I've been trying (without success) to find a science fiction short story that I read many years ago... (And maybe it borders on fantasy fiction)..
The storyline is something like this...
A man and a woman take off for a short trip in their flying car (sometime in the not too distant future) and all is going well when... woops! Their entire vehicle is swallowed by a dragon (or maybe a gryphon or griffin or similar larged winged reptile with a big gullet...)
And then the big flying reptile dies of indigestion, and crash lands somewhere in a nearby wilderness...
Meanwhile, back inside of the vehicle, the car is taking care of its occupants, providing them with shelter, water, food, air conditioning, bathroom facilities and more... slowly the life support systems degrade... and eventually the animal rots away enough so they can make their escape.
As the car designers did not adequately provide enough safety systems, the owners of the car successfully sued the car manufacturer - so they won big $$ damages, and the car company changed their design as a result.
That's the story - short and funny and memorable... but I can't remember where I saw it (probably in an anthology) and I thought maybe it was by Ursula K. Le Guin, but I am not sure she was the author...
If anyone has an idea of the title and/or author - I'd appreciate it. I've Googled for a few hours, and could not find any trace of this wonderful short story. I know that somebody else must have read this story, and if you could help me reconnect with it... I'd be much obliged.
Thanks in advance!
signed,
Dragongulpscar