{"id":7478,"date":"2018-09-13T06:12:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T10:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7478"},"modified":"2018-10-07T09:56:23","modified_gmt":"2018-10-07T13:56:23","slug":"color-is-more-than-a-shade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7478","title":{"rendered":"Color is More Than a Shade"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Red

JessicaJohnson, Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

How much worse \u201cThe Masque of the Red Death\u201d is than \u201cThe Mask of Death\u201d!<\/p>\n

Writers are forever trying to encourage their readers to \u201csee\u201d what they see in their heads, to both literally and figuratively \u201ccolor\u201d their perceptions. Why is that so important? Color is memorable, color can be trendy, and, most important, color incites emotions and connotes layers of meaning.<\/p>\n

Crimewriter John D. Macdonald\u2019s 21 Travis McGee novels all contain a color in their titles (The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper, The Dreadful Lemon Sky, The Lonely Silver Rain, <\/em>etc.). This was done on his publisher\u2019s advice, according to Wikipedia, in the belief that people on the go would be more willing to snap up a book if they were sure they hadn\u2019t read it already, and putting a color in the title would help them remember\u2014itself an interesting insight into the power of color in our visual memory.<\/p>\n

\"\"Book marketers notice color trends, too, like a rather acidic yellow<\/a> streaking into prominence in cover art. Pantone\u2019s Color of the Year for 2018 is Ultra Violet, \u201cA dramatically provocative and thoughtful purple shade,\u201d that Pantone says \u201ccommunicates originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking that points us toward the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, purple is associated with the Crown Chakra, but that sounds like a heavy burden for one color to carry! However, sure as Plum Mouse mushrooms follow the lonely silver rain, Susanne Matson\u2019s new book, published earlier this month, not only has ultraviolet on the cover, but as its title.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t understand the Plum Mouse reference, read yesterday\u2019s post here!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

These digressions bring me to my infatuation with a fun little book, Fortune-Telling Book of Colors<\/em>, a compendium of insights into color choices and their meanings. For example, the one-word association for Prussian Blue is \u201celegant,\u201d whereas sky blue is \u201cselfless\u201d and indigo, \u201cstable.\u201d The book offers many kinds of insights into colors, their associations, and psychology, including insights into people who prefer various colors. The character description for green-lovers like me begins \u201cYou cannot abide others telling you what to do . . .\u201d Surely an error.<\/p>\n

The book lists the common phrases that include colors. For yellow, they are yellow-bellied, yellow card, yellowdog contract, yellow fever, yellow journalism, and yellow streak. It describes colors\u2019 significance in different cultures. In Japan, my green symbolizes eternal life, but in Indonesia, it is \u201cforbidden,\u201d lest an evil sea goddess swallow you up if you stray too near the shore. A somewhat more scientific approach is embodied in “Blue as Can Be: Treasures from the Color Archive,” by Simon Schama<\/a> in the September 3 New Yorker<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Kassia St. Clair\u2019s 2017 The Secret Lives of Color<\/em> describes the fascinating history and significance of 75 colors\u2014a deep dive into the rainbow pool. There are these cultural history components to our attitudes toward color and personal history components beyond an author\u2019s ability to anticipate. People who grow up in a happy home where the kitchen is painted turquoise may ever after feel an affinity toward that color. If the association was negative, just the opposite.<\/p>\n

\"turquoise,

(photo: author)<\/p><\/div>\n

This is where the ability to describe a color accurately helps (see yesterday\u2019s post for more about this). Is your turquoise the coolly inviting shade of a Bahamian swimming pool, is it the heart-piercing turquoise of an Arizona sunset, or the dusty turquoise of your mother\u2019s favorite earrings? What penumbra of meaning are you trying to evoke? Additional descriptors add new associations and richness to your descriptions by making them more precise.<\/p>\n

As writers, we don\u2019t pick the color of a room or a coat randomly, even if the connections behind our choices are mostly unconscious. Because our readers also have both conscious and unconscious associations with colors, we owe it to the strength of our vision to describe them with precision.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How much worse \u201cThe Masque of the Red Death\u201d is than \u201cThe Mask of Death\u201d! Writers are forever trying to encourage their readers to \u201csee\u201d what they see in their heads, to both literally and figuratively \u201ccolor\u201d their perceptions. Why … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Color is More Than a Shade - how writers mobilize the power of color for memorability and meaning","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1288,74,174,29],"tags":[297,166,28],"class_list":["post-7478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-emotions","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing","tag-color","tag-creativity","tag-writers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1WC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7478"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7505,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7478\/revisions\/7505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}