Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" discussion

reflection on color coding

https://marycatelli.dreamwidth.org/11...

Nice post Mary. Im fascinated with the use of color in fiction.

I think Clint mentioned REH had his own flare with it (recently mentioned in the groupreads thread).

Anyway, do tell us how you plan to use it... or a favorite example of another author.

There are many common associations with colors, but I think in the end you can encode anything with colors if you want. You just have to use it repeatedly and stay consistent with it.
Today in videogames, necromancy is purple. For no inherent reason. Someone once started doing it and others kept imitating it. And when you now see someone throw purple light at someone, you know it's some necromancy power.

Somehow I have the personal association of yellow with evil and unnatural things. Sure, it's the iconic color of the sun and lots of common flowers are yellow. But somehow to me, yellow always indicates "wrong".

Well, purple is a color of mourning, and therefore of death.

It also helps that it was a hard color to dye until recently and so still carries the "rare and unusual" freight.

Martin wrote: "Somehow I have the personal association of yellow with evil and unnatural things. Sure, it's the iconic color of the sun and lots of common flowers are yellow. But somehow to me, yellow always indicates "wrong"."

Jaundice, perhaps? And yellow grass and other leaves during summer definitely indicate either sickness or drought, both bad. Yellow earth can be fertile but it's most often exposed in the desert or other non-flourishing lands. . . .

Since you have to load the language to get the effect.

S.E. wrote: "Anyway, do tell us how you plan to use it..."

I'm playing around with an idea for a blue enchantress and villainess. 0:)

I agree with S.E., good post, Mary!

Colors can bring so much meaning to things, for good or ill. Probably, the best example of this is the color of a cowboy hat representing good (white hat) and evil (black hat). As well as in Star Wars where the Sith wear black.

In the West, funerals are when black is worn. In the East, it's white. While, in the West, white is associated with weddings.

Different cultures associate colors with different meanings and feelings. This can be important when designing advertising campaigns in foreign countries.

The color red is often associated with power and aggression--as in the power tie.

I don't see colors used as much in books this way (except white vs. black to represent good vs. evil ). Mainly it's movies that delve deeper into color, but it is something authors may want to consider more thoroughly.

*eta: Edited post to swap positions of two phrases and to correct throughly

"Blue is heavenly and so good." Mary Catelli

My Knights wear blue tunics, which mark them as one people. No banner, crest, nor sigil. And in the first chapter the main character looks up to see a cloudless sky. A profound blue. Impeccable.

Blue is contrasted by the drabness of the sparse landscape, the blood of combat, the white clouds, and nearing the end, the green of the changing landscape. The first tiny flowers that bloom in the rainy season are blue.

Ooo -- sounds like a cool usage.