Perceptions of Colour

Four youths waiting for a Victoria line train at Kings Cross are arguing about colours. What colour is this? They start asking for second opinions from other passengers. They light on absolutes as colours to check. Is this brown or yellow? The woman is wearing a fluffy mustard zip up jacket. Yellow! Nah brown. Nah it’s orange. I put in my tuppenies-worth - it’s mustard - otherwise known as dark yellow.  They all have a different opinion. One claims to have perfect vision when accused of his eyes not working right. It’s quite likely someone has some colour blindness. Next is a purple coat. They all went purple. They can’t agree on a pink vs purple shade of deep pink (possibly a bit magenta). 

I read a book recently called The Secret Lives of Colours - fantastic book - delving into the history of colours, individually named, some very similar to each other but historically known differently. Stories about their popularity, rise and fall. Fantastically interesting. I wish I had had it with me. For after this book there is no simple yellow, red, blue, green absolutes. There are only shades, nuances and possibilities. No one-dimensional argument can be won when each eye may perceive each hue differently.