Surreal Saturday
Once again we take a short break from our exploration of Max Ernst’s surrealistic graphic novel Une semaine de bonté, and present, instead, a selection of images from a 1919/20 U.S. Air Service training manual, Installation and Cranking of Airplane Engines. It purports to be a manual on how to crank Curtiss, Hall-Scott, and Hispano-Suiza Motors, but with its disembodied propeller and strange, ritualistic positions, we suspect that it is either a secret U.S. Armed Forces experiment in hallucinogenic drugs, a dance manual for masonic performance, or the surreal dream of the megalomaniac Brain From Planet Arous!! As you can see, it turns out to be the latter.
We’ve added captions to each image that seem appropriate. But, perhaps you can think of better ones. Please reblog with your own interpretations.
And remember: Never, ever turn your back on the devious machinations of a propeller controlled by the evil Brain from Planet Arous!!
View more posts from our Surreal Saturday series.
