I looked at his handiwork and shrugged. "Fake."
"What? I spent months on this."
"Fake."
He threw up his hands in frustration. "First you tell me to perfect the process, now you tell me they're fake."
I shrugged again. "Do I look like that? Really?" He tried to nod, and I fixed him with a hard stare. "Really?" He admitted defeat. "I'm not saying they aren't physically correct, but come on. A double dose of plastic gloss and those horrible jaded eyes. If I wanted hookers I would have asked for them."
He looked crushed, and I put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. I still believed he could clone me so I could fuck myself. But these copies were going in the incinerator. Fake. Totally fake.
Tell us how you really feel, Lexi. Did you like the picture?
Why no, thanks for asking invisible audience.
Okay, so I didn't care much for this picture. Those faces were just horrid. I'm not sure the accurate description of the emotion those two women are feeling; constipation, most likely. Or possibly just derision. Either way, it turned me off completely.
And then there's the plastic-fantastic bodies. And the fact that these two are obviously not identical twins. And the total lack of anything sexy about them, apart from their nudity. Honestly, put these two in tennis outfits and tell me they wouldn't look equally non-sexy.
Photographers pose people for pictures. What we see is often not "real" but rather a fake reality that looks real enough. Or gives an impression of reality that the photographer wants to convey. Or just isn't supposed to look real at all. There's an art to taking a portrait of sensuality. I think I've mentioned in the past my feelings on the subject of "reality" in pornography.
Most soft-core porn coming out of the major producers of such things is not art. It's smut. And sometimes it's sexy smut. But often enough it's just smut, and if that gets you off, fine, but it's fake as Hell. Hence, the reason I've never once felt tempted to subscribe to Playboy.
I don't want this to seem like I'm bitter about this, or really even complaining; I'm not. The picture inspired the story, and that's all that is required. I'm not necessarily going to like every picture that comes down the pike. I'm just explaining where my thought process was.
Speaking of thought process, how about destroying clones of yourself because they didn't turn out right. Suicide, murder, or neither? Oooooh, flame war! Honestly, right now I'm thinking of The Prestige. Or Kraken by China Miéville.
In spite of my bitching this week, Flash Fiction Friday is great and you should do it too. Head over there right now; there's still time to put in your entry this week.
15 comments:
Ha! I love it. Very creative take.
Happy FFF!
Tell us what you REALLY think. Don't hold back. :)
No, I kid. Sorry it wasn't quite to your liking. Hey, it just occurred to me that you haven't ever sent me any pics to use for FFF. How about it? Bounce me a few that get your crank turning; I'd like to see 'em.
(That is totally not a "if you don't like it, could you do better?" remark, by the way).
Enjoyed your take, though I do have Weird Al's "I Think I'm a Clone Now" playing in my head after reading.....
Thanks for playing! Happy FFF.
-- PB
How do you spell out the catty noise? Rayrrrr . . .
:-)
XO
I agree...I did not like the photo on many levels. Still, a wonderful quote I heard related to art (and I'm probably paraphrasing poorly here): "All response is valid."
I loved The Prestige!! everyone should go rent it tonight.
But, that being said, the picture is too static, posed, fake, and, as you say, dead. A lot of "erotic" photography seems to be geared towards replicating sex dolls instead of sexy women. While I'm a fan of good porn, a lot of "high end" porn with make-up and lighting and attempts at story lines leaves me cold because they are imitating life, but not being life-like. They are living residents of the "uncanny valley", that disturbing space where animation looks almost human, but not quite, and you are left feeling icky about the whole thing.
I love the cloning angle though. It's a great way to tell a story and express your feelings about the picture itself.
@Max: Thanks. Glad that even in my darkest hours I can be creative.
@PB: 'Twas not a comment on you, but on the photo. You, I like. And I totally deserve a "shit or get off the pot" remark about sending in photos. I have an asston of things which I've found that would make good FFFodder. Part of the reason I don't send them is because I don't want to pick, because that would defeat the purpose of the challenge for me. But I should get over that tic and send something, you're right.
@Jim: Catty? Oh no, I'm way past catty. Force 5 bitch coming online ;)
@Soren: The height of narcissism, it's said, is looking in the mirror and saying, "Boy, I'd sure like to fuck myself." I don't personally have many of those moments, but our intrepid heroine must.
@Advizor: But have you read the book? The Prestige bothered me, and I'm not sure whether it was in a good or a bad way. It's funny you mention the uncanny valley though; I've often wondered what the human reaction to seeing a clone of oneself would be, and I imagine the cognitive dissonance involved would be similar to the uncanny valley. Certainly if one were trying to fuck one's clone.
@Oversexed Librarian: Okay, I didn't forget you, I just... skipped you by accident. I'm glad I wasn't the only one troubled by the picture.
Awesome take! Totally made me laugh (but yours generally do). ;)
Kind of reminds me of The Island, except this cloning could be more fun! BUT what would it mean to *dispose* of clones? Not sure how I feel about that yet...
P.S. Word verification...hansful....ha!
@Lola: The CAPTCHAs seem to be apropos far too often to be mere coincidence. Could it be that Google's word-verification robot is enjoying itself? Have we made a robot cum? If a word-verification robot cums, I bet it cums off-color CAPTCHAs ;)
An artist's life is not an easy one. Or what was he -- the person who had spent months on his handiwork? ;-)
In spite of the fact that you detested the pic so immensely, you wrote a decent piece. Only one problem... The diatribe after was so much better. :)
Never been a fan of the skin mags, and always preferred to look at the nude art mags. Much better pictures.
@TemptingSweets: I never thought about him being an artist. Maybe he is. Or a stem-cell researcher.
@France: I should, I should. I'll have to send him several though, and let him choose, because I don't want to know which one he'll pick and have a head-start on writing it.
@wordwytch: Yeah, that's pretty much how I felt vis-a-vis the fiction versus the after-party ;) They can't all be winners, and I'm not too proud to say so.
Yes, yes, Stem cell researcher makes lots of sense. Well, I'm sorry for him that his work wasn't very much appreciated. ;-)
I like your take on the clone angle.
While I love their bodies (my type) I also noticed their faces (they look like they are sick of standing there).
I also agree that playboy is WAY overposed, and there are WAY to many articles..serious articles...give me some porn. That is why I have become such a fan of Tumblr...lots of very artistic pictures.
Initially I was very excited about the photo, the twin thing...but when I started to write it was difficult to come up with a tennis angle. I thought I would have more ideas.
I can't wait for your FFF challange.
@TemptingSweets: I don't know that I don't like the idea of him being an artist better, now that you've suggested it. Maybe a Pygmalion-type. It's more magical that way than with science.
@Kenny: They're trying to look sultry. Most people don't know how to look sultry. I'm not sure my "sultry" look actually looks sultry, to tell the truth, which is why I don't do it often, unless I'm trying to be funny. I prefer smiling to sultry, but then I giggle during sex.
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