Mar. 31, 2003 - 12:04 p.m.
Dear Meghan:
More wordplay:
If minutes are mine and years are yours, what is hours?
Is there a camp for those who wish to act flamboyantly – and would that be called a camp camp?
Could one take a walk with a wok while discussing Jonas Salk with Peter Falk? And not balk?
Do midgets live by the credo ‘when in Gnome…’?
The individual/group concept was well addressed by you, despite your concern that it was ill-considered. It seems related to our fate discussion. Would you agree that, in order to truly be an individual, one would have to not be subject to the stimuli of the civilized world? Indeed, isn’t the use of English a tool that unites us, makes us part of a group? And, barring a few random phrases – ‘stick that banana in my eyesocket!’ for example – we are repeating ideas, phrases and concepts we have picked up, only channeling it through the Meghan-o-Machine or Vincent-o-Machine. I would suggest that, of all the species out there, Bigfoot would be closest to being an individual. Followed by, perhaps, accountants.
The color feeling discussion has grown a lot more intriguing since you took and ran with it in your last letter. Perhaps this could form the basis of a first collaborative short story? It is relatively well known that El Paso has a measure of lithium in its water and that contributes to an unusually high sense of well-being its inhabitants have; could it be unreasonable to consider a small town with emotive dye in its water? Spectrumopolis?
Before that sinks in, consider what color would represent what feeling. I’ve kicked that around for a little while and was somewhat surprised that I instinctively designated red for both love and pain. If this was so (and bearing in mind this is all hypothetical anyway), would pink signify love and tomato signify pain? Or rose = love and brick = pain?
Imagine how difficult it would be to be an actor. While you are trying to will a rose-colored aura to envelope you for the great love scene, you are also trying to quash the dirty yellow nervousness, pale green nausea and black-light ego that all vie for dominance.
Imagine a chess game.
Imagine the Super Bowl.
Speaking of sports, sex would be wildly different and direct. Imagine spotting a guy you like and you both turn the exact color of fire. A romance could bloom instantly. Imagine, though, down the road – say, three or four years – when the ‘fire’ has ‘cooled’ somewhat, and you spot a gentleman whom you wouldn’t want to be involved with, but whom inspires a bit of fire to be noticed – and your guy sees. Then things get complicated.
It is interesting to note that most likely our correspondence would be exactly the same, unless words glowed as well.
With respect to your question whether color feelings would inspire less violence or more, I would come back to our favorite catchphrase: a bit of both. Certainly, those who instinctively believe in not causing harm would reduce their hitherto unknown slights on their fellow person; those who dig pain would delight in seeing how bright they could make their foes become. However, you’d know the difference between the former and the latter because of their own color feelings that would precede their speaking to you.
Care to explore this further?
Resolved,
Vincent
what they said - what they will say
