Worth 50,000: Day Eight - I'll Carry You Home

[momebie]

Max Ernst was a surrealist painter and a member of the Dada movement, but I know him best for his collage, which tends to find me no matter where I am on the internet. The image below is taken (I believe) from Une semaine de bonté, a surrealist graphic novel that is made up of 182 images he created by cutting up and reorganizing Victorian encyclopedias. For those of you familiar with Wondermark!, it's kind of like that. I wish I could say something intelligent, like how Ernst's work holds more interepidation and danger than that of the other artists who also use this technique, but I just haven't read enough yet to be sure. (I wonder if I can order that off Amazon...)

The key to collage is, much like writing, knowing what you want to represent and pulling together the pieces that you think will get you there. Which part of this image are you going to pluck away and make something new with?



Write. Comment. Repeat.

Comments

[pocky_slash.livejournal.com]

I think I can work with this.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Woo! I was worried you were going to think I was making things difficult for you. Which I'm not. ...Yet.

[pocky_slash.livejournal.com]

mcwonthelottery: look! kl posted another train photo for you!
mcwonthelottery: mutants on a train! tied up! with a lion?
somehow, it fits.
pocky_slash: Hahaha, well, I saw it and I was like, "REALLY, KL? REALLY?"
but then I read what she wrote about collages and taking the important bits
and I was like, "OKAY I CAN WORK WITH THIS."
mcwonthelottery: i hope the important bits are the tied up people
pocky_slash: Or I could write an AU where Erik is a cartoon villian with a twirly mustache tying Charles to railroad tracks.
mcwonthelottery: oh
my
god
do it.
pocky_slash: Oh god
now I kind of have to, don't i?

***

"You'll never get away with this, Magneto!" Charles shouted over the already approaching roar of the train.

"Who's going to stop me?" Magneto asked. He laughed heartily, stroking his mustache as he stepped back to admire his handiwork. Charles would never be able to break through the steel cables that Magneto had bound him with. "Your precious X-Men?"

Charles thought about Hank's stubborn refusal to leave the house, Sean's new-found obsession with hoarding weird things from flea markets and talking in weird accents, and the fact that Alex was just a white space in the kitchen.

"They're rather inept, aren't they?" he admitted.

The train was coming faster, now. Charles could feel the vibrations from the rails he was tied to and in a scant few minutes, he'd be torn apart by the racing locomotive. Or squished. Or whatever villains assume will happen when they tie someone to the train tracks. Magneto flipped his long black cape over his shoulder and adjusted his black top hat. He was really taking this cartoon villain thing a bit too far. Charles was surprised he didn't have a cackling dog as a sidekick.

"You're a terrible man!" Charles cried out. "When my X-Men find out what you've done, they'll make you pay!"

Magneto cackled again and said, "Then they'll come running right into my trap, like the noble fools they are!" More cackling.

"I think you're laying the evil laugh on a little heavy," Charles said.

Magneto stopped laughing and glared at him.

"The laugh is classic," he said. "All evil villains have an evil laugh."

"In moderation it works," Charles said. "Now it's just gone from scary to cliche."

"Fuck you!" Magneto snapped. "What do you know, anyway?"

"I know that sounds like a much better idea," Charles said, raising his eyebrows.

"What?" Magneto asked.

"You know you agree," Charles said. "You in that costume, me tied to a bed somewhere instead of a train track, helpless against anything you try to do to me." His eyes went a little glazed. "I'm getting hot just thinking about it."

"Hot with...fear?" Magneto asked dubiously.

"Of course," Charles said quickly. "Hot with fear. I bet there's a riding crop that goes with those boots and that hat, right?" Magneto blinked at him. "Um, and I'm terrified of it. Obviously."

"Well," Magneto said, frowning, "this train is taking an awful long time to get here."

"Excellent!" Charles said. "Let's go!" At Magneto's glare he added, "Um, I mean, oh no, I can't believe you're changing your plan and taking me hostage somewhere my students will never find me, at least not for a few days if they know what's good for them!"

And then they went off and Magneto tortured Charles for days in his secret lair. At least, that's how he explained the bruises and bite marks to his students when they finally found him.

The end.

[bessiemaemucho.livejournal.com]

A++++++ mustache twirling.

The best part was how Charles wasn't the top.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Hot with...fear?

I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with the insane cackling coming from my corner of the internet. It will pass, maybe. Right after I stop imagining Erik as Snidely Whiplash.

[mcwonthelottery.livejournal.com]

THIS IS THE BEST X-MEN FIC IN EXISTENCE.

[soundandvision.livejournal.com]

That was the best story about being tied to train tracks I have ever, ever read.

"Hot with...fear?" Magneto asked dubiously. I have no words for how amazing that dialogue is. XDD

[kyasuriin.livejournal.com]

A++++ Hurrah! Have some toast!

[seratonation.livejournal.com]

omg this is truely the best thing ever omg i cant. also reading over that conversation about how adam is sean, i almost spit tea all over my computer (i didnt, but it was a close call :D)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

A++

[xsnarkasaurus.livejournal.com]

So you wanna tell me why you're posting old fashioned bondage porn? XD

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Is there a reason one SHOULDN'T post such things?

[xsnarkasaurus.livejournal.com]

Well, no.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Look. Her ropes are being held in place by cogs. It's totally steampunk, or something!

[tigrkittn.livejournal.com]

Yesss! Steampunk porn!!

[momebie.livejournal.com]

I have totally written porn of my steampunk characters. It's how I show my love.

[earlofcardigans.livejournal.com]

what exactly is she tied to? I might think about this all day. I don't know how I feel about that.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no idea. >.>

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

It's obviously a truth detector.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

"C'mere," Ray said. "You gotta see this."

"What?" I said. The paper in the lockbox was old, probably from the 1800s. I couldn't figure out what we might be able to do with any of it except kindling at this point. Then I got close enough to see it, really see it.

"She's tied up," I said.

"Vintage porn," he said, with relish. "Can you believe it? This was somebody's treasure."

I shook my head. Sure, I had a couple of magazines under the bed, but they weren't in a special lockbox.

"They probably would've been worth something before," Ray said. "Holy shit, this one has a donkey--"

I turned away. "Have fun," I said, laughing. "Should I tell Frankie?"