This is German artist Max Ernst's collage-novel. He beckons us to provide our own personal interpretation to the captions and surreal collages he constructed from old picture books and journal so that we create our own version of the story. I did exactly that – and created my own micro fiction below:

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Black Collage

I’m constructing a Max Ernst-like collage out of last night’s dream. Here are the pieces: a room, a toilet bowl, a boy named Danny who has one red eye and one green eye, a menacing black-hooded figure and a host of animals: opossum, Tasmanian devil, wallaby, aardvark, baboon, rabbit, mallard, chameleon, bullfrog and snake.

The dream consists of the following: Danny walks into a room with a toilet bowl at one end and all those animals, stacked one on top of another like a totem pole at the other.

“I would really like to have a pet,” shouts Danny.

Hearing his wish, the animals flee – fly, run and crawl straight for the toilet bowl. All the animals escape except one – Danny catches the mallard by its rump feathers just as it is about to disappear down the plumbing. Not wishing to be converted to pet status, the mallard plays possum, closing its eyes and flattening itself out like a rug. At this point the hooded figure enters and accuses Danny of engaging in tasteless black humor.


Now for the collage: I place Danny in the middle giving him grasping, outstretched hands. Since I’m working like Max Ernst, that is, constructing a collage in black-and-white, I attempt to convey the bizarreness of Danny’s eyes by giving him the eyes of a fly. I then paste the baboon, wallaby, rabbit, aardvark and snake beyond Danny’s grasp and position the toilet bowl at the bottom with a string of other animals – opossum, chameleon, bullfrog and finally the mallard – heading its way.

The one in the hood goes at the very top of the collage. As for his comment about black humor, I think it only appropriate to give this menacing figure the head of a Tasmanian devil. With such an absurd head, let’s see how seriously anybody takes his comment about bad taste.