Field guide No. 289
The zebra’s unfinished stripes
Stripes sold separately.
A zebra stands on dry grassland at dusk, its back half still plain white while its stripes unravel into black ribbon that runs to a spool in the grass. Assembly incomplete.
Field noteStripes are pigment, not ribbon, so the spool is a category slip. The half-zebra is otherwise sound.
Also possible, also breaking category
Seals and the surging seaA screen is a picture of the sea, not the sea. The seals came anyway.
Room to expandBellows-shaped buildings are a structural engineer’s problem, not a philosopher’s.
Frost on the film reelFilm unwinds in long, glossy ribbons, and rivers freeze into the same. The likeness is all it needs.
The starry egg in the cartonTaken as a painted egg, it passes. Taken as a carton holding the sky, it would be a different file.