Book Review ~~ The Eyes Have It ~~

Today I read the philosophical puzzle “The Eyes Have It”, which is, again, part of the collection of puzzles “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” by Julian Baggini. This puzzle suggests that people might view the world differently—either through an inverted spectrum, as the example suggests, or with colors slightly different for everyone. In the story accompanying the puzzle, Cecilia sees the world through an inverted spectrum, and this problem is noticed when she looks through her friend’s eyes. To Luke, what she sees as “blue” is red. The sky is the color she calls red. Ripe bananas are yellow, instead of green. Although some people might think that this would easily be discovered through a color blindness test, those tests only test for an inability to differentiate between two colors. This can be applied to things other than color as well, though, and any sensation—even, for example, the feeling of joy or sadness—might mean very different things for different people. In fact, all language that describes something—which is almost the entirety of language—might be understood differently by different people. I thought that this was a very interesting idea and recommend this story to anyone who has wondered about this subject, found the suggestion interesting, likes other stories from “The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten,” or is simply looking for an interesting story to read and puzzle over. I would rate it 9.8/10.

Color Symbolism ~~ The Masque of the Red Death ~~

I recently wrote an essay on the symbolism of the colors in “The Masque of the Red Death”:

In “The Masque of the Red Death”, by Edgar Allan Poe, the colors of the chambers are symbolic as a spectrum, and some of the individual colors are also symbolic. Some of the meanings are more obvious, while others have to be connected with the story and the placement of the rooms to make sense.

For example, black symbolizes death and evil, and scarlet can symbolize blood. Black is often worn to funerals to represent the recent death, and red is the color of blood. Black combined with red, as in the seventh chamber, represents death, and since blood is the “Red Death’s” avatar and seal, it represents death from, specifically, the “Red Death” in “The Masque of the Red Death”. Because of this, the revelers who tried to escape the “Red Death” confront the “Red Death” in this chamber and are all killed by the “Red Death”, as the colors of the chambers suggest.

As a spectrum, the colors—blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and black—represent the beginning of the day to midnight. Blue and purple represent the darkness of the night before the sun rises, and green flashes can sometimes be observed during sunrises. Sunrises are often orange, and white could represent the blinding sunlight at noon. Violet can represent sunset, and black represents midnight. The rooms also progress from east to west, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. According to this interpretation of the colors, the “Red Death” led the prince from dawn to midnight before killing him. Since the Red Death appears at midnight, this might connect death with midnight.

Finally, blue can represent birth and black can symbolize death, the spectrum of colors representing life. The blue room can be associated with birth because it is the westernmost room, where the sun rises, and the easternmost room, where the sun sets, is associated with death and endings. The colors of the black room can also be associated with death. The prince and the other revelers were killed in the black-and-red room, and the prince started chasing the “Red Death” in the blue room, which could suggest birth. Because the party-goers were trying to avoid death, they avoided the black room, which reminded them of death, the thing they were trying to avoid.

The colors and their placements are symbolical. The blue room represents beginnings—birth and the beginning of the day—while the black-and-red room represents endings—death and the end of the day. In the story, Poe showed that death is unavoidable, even though Prince Prospero and his friends went to such measures to achieve it.

[I’ve noticed that some of my coding doesn’t work for some browsers, so if the font size looks unusually large or something like that, I’m sorry. I’m still working on my coding skills.]