"What goes up must come down. Since the apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton's head more than three centuries ago, we have been intrigued, mystified, and baffled by gravity. In honor of our quixotic quest to defy gravity's tyranny, iconoclastic social critic Joseph Lanza offers this fun, fact-filled, and often vertiginous literary excursion." "Packed with chills, spills, and moments of speculation that range from the disturbing to the humorous to the inspirational, Lanza relates some of gravity's most brilliant moments: the falls of Lucifer and Icarus; the dawn of physics; the evolution of springs; the ages of flight and space travel; the rise of cities; the sensations of the cinema; the heights and depths of eroticism; the violent motion of thrill rides; the ire of earthquakes; the impending threat of killer asteroids; the sinister course of ordinary household objects; the rigors of weight lifting; the horrors of sagging body tissue; and even such gravitational wonders as the flying saucer, the push-up bra, and the mind-boggling metaphors offered by angel food cake."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved