a carnival of convergences

the other day, sean sent me the link to the mcsweeney's convergence contest, the results of which they are making into a book. how i wish i would have known about it! but it makes me think hard about this tendency so many people are feeling to pair disparate images to make new meanings out of them.
i mean, what is this urge? what are we reconciling when we participate in this activity?
the images i have posted here are from the "carnival of convergences" segment of the contest, a collection of runners up.
the first is "stroking the curves," by jake landis

and the second is "american fightin' fish" by matthew gruenburg. as many times as i have been stuck behind an suv with either a fish or a "support our troops" ribbon (or both), i had never noticed that they are essentially the same shape.



it gave me a chill when i saw it.