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Everyone who’s read the book says that the world of Random Magic is so colorful and vivid that they can actually almost see the world right in front of them, as if it were a movie.
It was definitely written that way, since that world actually is a lot more magical and overwhelming than our own world. Everything would be more powerful and startling, including something as basic as the colors surrounding Henry and Winnie as they search for Alice.
But a lot of the colors in Random Magic aren’t just there for decoration, but actually have some particular significance.
Here are some quick reader notes about the more symbolic uses of color in Random Magic. This post is about the use of the color black:
The color of black is the color of night. It’s the color of secrets, mystery, mourning and power.
But it’s also the color of renunciation of the world, as is the case with priests or other religious figures, even including modern-day Wiccans.
So, although the color black is often associated with evil, or with ill luck -- as in the saying “don’t let a black cat cross your path” -- it’s also a deeply spiritual color, the color of people who have turned their back on the world, or those who are outcasts through no fault of their own.
Or it might just be in their own particular nature. Night creatures might not necessarily be evil, so much as much of what they are is hidden from plain view.
The Dark Queen, for example, wears black. She may or may not necessarily be evil, but she favors black because night is her natural environment. The De Morgues, as well, are isolated in their castle, in a gloomy, dark nest of spooky places.
These characters feel comfortable with their secrets and mysterious ways, isolation and connection to their inner and outer darkness. So, they might not necessarily do you any harm. On the other hand, it’s never a good idea to push your luck.
The Black Forest, on the other hand, is an unabashedly unpleasant, vicious and dastardly place to visit. The curt and unfriendly signpost to the entrance to the Black Forest says it all.
The Black Forest, well, it embodies all of those non-friendly aspects of night, darkness, and things that go bump in the night, and is best approached with just one point of view: If you don’t have to go there -- don’t.
Of course, this doesn’t stop Winnie. She knows her way through the Black Forest…but only because she’s already made it out alive.
Showing posts with label Below The Surface. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Below The Surface. Show all posts
The Colors of Random Magic: Black
[Tour host info: This is one post in a series of quick reader notes about the colors used in Random Magic. If you would like this essay for your post during your tour stop, please leave your comments on this page, send a msg via Twitter, or drop an email -- trying to figure out who would like which piece so there are no double posts. You know, so we sort of look semi-organized. Yeah, we're really just winging it, but hey!]
Images available:
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Text:
Everyone who’s read the book says that the world of Random Magic is so colorful and vivid that they can actually almost see the world right in front of them, as if it were a movie.
It was definitely written that way, since that world actually is a lot more magical and overwhelming than our own world. Everything would be more powerful and startling, including something as basic as the colors surrounding Henry and Winnie as they search for Alice.
But a lot of the colors in Random Magic aren’t just there for decoration, but actually have some particular significance.
Here are some quick reader notes about the more symbolic uses of color in Random Magic. This post is about the use of the color black:
The color of black is the color of night. It’s the color of secrets, mystery, mourning and power.
But it’s also the color of renunciation of the world, as is the case with priests or other religious figures, even including modern-day Wiccans.
So, although the color black is often associated with evil, or with ill luck -- as in the saying “don’t let a black cat cross your path” -- it’s also a deeply spiritual color, the color of people who have turned their back on the world, or those who are outcasts through no fault of their own.
Or it might just be in their own particular nature. Night creatures might not necessarily be evil, so much as much of what they are is hidden from plain view.
The Dark Queen, for example, wears black. She may or may not necessarily be evil, but she favors black because night is her natural environment. The De Morgues, as well, are isolated in their castle, in a gloomy, dark nest of spooky places.
These characters feel comfortable with their secrets and mysterious ways, isolation and connection to their inner and outer darkness. So, they might not necessarily do you any harm. On the other hand, it’s never a good idea to push your luck.
The Black Forest, on the other hand, is an unabashedly unpleasant, vicious and dastardly place to visit. The curt and unfriendly signpost to the entrance to the Black Forest says it all.
The Black Forest, well, it embodies all of those non-friendly aspects of night, darkness, and things that go bump in the night, and is best approached with just one point of view: If you don’t have to go there -- don’t.
Of course, this doesn’t stop Winnie. She knows her way through the Black Forest…but only because she’s already made it out alive.
Text:
Everyone who’s read the book says that the world of Random Magic is so colorful and vivid that they can actually almost see the world right in front of them, as if it were a movie.
It was definitely written that way, since that world actually is a lot more magical and overwhelming than our own world. Everything would be more powerful and startling, including something as basic as the colors surrounding Henry and Winnie as they search for Alice.
But a lot of the colors in Random Magic aren’t just there for decoration, but actually have some particular significance.
Here are some quick reader notes about the more symbolic uses of color in Random Magic. This post is about the use of the color black:
The color of black is the color of night. It’s the color of secrets, mystery, mourning and power.
But it’s also the color of renunciation of the world, as is the case with priests or other religious figures, even including modern-day Wiccans.
So, although the color black is often associated with evil, or with ill luck -- as in the saying “don’t let a black cat cross your path” -- it’s also a deeply spiritual color, the color of people who have turned their back on the world, or those who are outcasts through no fault of their own.
Or it might just be in their own particular nature. Night creatures might not necessarily be evil, so much as much of what they are is hidden from plain view.
The Dark Queen, for example, wears black. She may or may not necessarily be evil, but she favors black because night is her natural environment. The De Morgues, as well, are isolated in their castle, in a gloomy, dark nest of spooky places.
These characters feel comfortable with their secrets and mysterious ways, isolation and connection to their inner and outer darkness. So, they might not necessarily do you any harm. On the other hand, it’s never a good idea to push your luck.
The Black Forest, on the other hand, is an unabashedly unpleasant, vicious and dastardly place to visit. The curt and unfriendly signpost to the entrance to the Black Forest says it all.
The Black Forest, well, it embodies all of those non-friendly aspects of night, darkness, and things that go bump in the night, and is best approached with just one point of view: If you don’t have to go there -- don’t.
Of course, this doesn’t stop Winnie. She knows her way through the Black Forest…but only because she’s already made it out alive.
The Colors of Random Magic: Gold
[Tour host info: This is one post in a series of quick reader notes about the colors used in Random Magic. If you would like this essay for your post during your tour stop, please leave your comments on this page, send a msg via Twitter, or drop an email -- trying to figure out who would like which piece so there are no double posts. You know, so we sort of look semi-organized. Yeah, we're really just winging it, but hey!]
Images available:
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It was definitely written that way, since that world actually is a lot more magical and overwhelming than our own world. Everything would be more powerful and startling, including something as basic as the colors surrounding Henry and Winnie as they search for
The Colors of Random Magic: Blue
[Tour host info: This is one post in a series of quick reader notes about the colors used in Random Magic. If you would like this essay for your post during your tour stop, please leave your comments on this page, send a msg via Twitter, or drop an email -- trying to figure out who would like which piece so there are no double posts. You know, so we sort of look semi-organized. Yeah, we're really just winging it, but hey!
Note: If you need to trim for length, can easily cut the first two paragraphs, they're just intro and not strictly necessary.]
Images available:
Text:
Everyone who’s read the book says that the world of Random Magic is so colorful and vivid that they can actually almost see the world right in front of them, as if it were a movie.
It was definitely written that way, since that world actually is a lot more magical and overwhelming than our own world. Everything would be more powerful and startling, including something as basic as the colors surrounding Henry and Winnie as they search for
Inside Random Magic: The Painted Soul
[Tour host info: A quick write-up on some of the subtexts in the Garden of the Muses. This one is specifically about the symbolism of the butterflies. If you'd like this for your post, please leave a comment below, send an email, or msg via Twitter. Trying to make sure there's a nice selection of additional content to post alongside reviews, interviews, trailer, etc.
If you already have your completed interview, you might not need additional content, but if you don't have your interview, yet, and would like to include some useful info about the book for your readers, then just speak up -- the additional content is for use on the tour, just trying to match up a particular post with whoever's most interested in including the topic!]
Images available:
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Text:
In the Garden of the Muses, the air is teeming with butterflies in vivid colors. It’s a beautiful image, but those little splashes of color also have a more subtle meaning.
The dazzling butterflies, in fact, literally are thoughts. The Ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which translates as “soul” or “mind.”
In one sense, the butterflies would be symbolic of the Muses’ shifting thoughts. In another sense, they’d be the messengers of inspired thoughts to their favorite writers, artists, poets, or other seekers.
In a third sense, the butterflies represent the Muses' general benevolence, kindness and good nature toward mortal beings, since seeing a butterfly can symbolize that love is on its way to you soon, or that you’ll see someone whose face you miss.
In the last sense, because a butterfly starts life as a lowly caterpillar, then a pupa, before finally emerging as something delicate and glorious, with a flutter of resplendent wings, the butterfly represents the creative process, itself.
You start with something ugly or low, or not quite developed, then through stages of development, survival and patience, in the end something really quite extraordinary emerges.
Of course, the vibrant color and delicate glory of butterflies are also, unfortunately, very short-lived. But of course that’s what makes temporal things so beautiful, even life itself.
This awareness is recognized in the Japanese concept of “mono no aware,” or a sensitivity of ephemera. In brief, one of the reasons cherry blossoms are celebrated is because of their beauty. But also because their beauty will only exist for a brief span of time.
What’s interesting, of course, is that, while human beings are mortal, the things they create are immortal.
They don’t have the lifespan of immortals like the Nine Muses, but, ironically, the things they create are immortal. The physical object might be destroyed, but the memory, or the representation of it lives on.
If you’re not sure if this is true or not, you might consider that today we can still hear the works of Mozart or Grieg, or watch a story told by Shakespeare or, to go even further back, by Homer. The dead can’t speak, but, yes, their legacy can.
Unlike butterflies, which bring welcome beauty into the world, and just as quickly abandon the world, human hands can create immortal works of art.
As the Latin saying goes, “Ars longa, vita brevis.” (Art is long, life is short.)
These are just some things to consider when you’re reading that section of the book -- and also, perhaps, the next time you happen to see a butterfly.
[Additional info you'd like to add: URLs, next tour stop info, related links, your review link, etc.]
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Text:
In the Garden of the Muses, the air is teeming with butterflies in vivid colors. It’s a beautiful image, but those little splashes of color also have a more subtle meaning.
The dazzling butterflies, in fact, literally are thoughts. The Ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which translates as “soul” or “mind.”
In one sense, the butterflies would be symbolic of the Muses’ shifting thoughts. In another sense, they’d be the messengers of inspired thoughts to their favorite writers, artists, poets, or other seekers.
In a third sense, the butterflies represent the Muses' general benevolence, kindness and good nature toward mortal beings, since seeing a butterfly can symbolize that love is on its way to you soon, or that you’ll see someone whose face you miss.
In the last sense, because a butterfly starts life as a lowly caterpillar, then a pupa, before finally emerging as something delicate and glorious, with a flutter of resplendent wings, the butterfly represents the creative process, itself.
You start with something ugly or low, or not quite developed, then through stages of development, survival and patience, in the end something really quite extraordinary emerges.
Of course, the vibrant color and delicate glory of butterflies are also, unfortunately, very short-lived. But of course that’s what makes temporal things so beautiful, even life itself.
This awareness is recognized in the Japanese concept of “mono no aware,” or a sensitivity of ephemera. In brief, one of the reasons cherry blossoms are celebrated is because of their beauty. But also because their beauty will only exist for a brief span of time.
What’s interesting, of course, is that, while human beings are mortal, the things they create are immortal.
They don’t have the lifespan of immortals like the Nine Muses, but, ironically, the things they create are immortal. The physical object might be destroyed, but the memory, or the representation of it lives on.
If you’re not sure if this is true or not, you might consider that today we can still hear the works of Mozart or Grieg, or watch a story told by Shakespeare or, to go even further back, by Homer. The dead can’t speak, but, yes, their legacy can.
Unlike butterflies, which bring welcome beauty into the world, and just as quickly abandon the world, human hands can create immortal works of art.
As the Latin saying goes, “Ars longa, vita brevis.” (Art is long, life is short.)
These are just some things to consider when you’re reading that section of the book -- and also, perhaps, the next time you happen to see a butterfly.
[Additional info you'd like to add: URLs, next tour stop info, related links, your review link, etc.]
Inside Random Magic: The Garden
[Tour host info: A quick write-up on some of the subtexts in the Garden of the Muses. If you'd like this for your post, please leave a comment below, send an email, or msg via Twitter. Trying to make sure there's a nice selection of additional content to post alongside reviews, interviews, trailer, etc.
If you already have your completed interview, you might not need additional content, but if you don't have your interview, yet, and would like to include some useful info about the book for your readers, then just speak up -- the additional content is for use on the tour, just trying to match up a particular post with whoever's most interested in including the topic!]
Images available for use:
Text:
The Garden of the Muses is a visual explosion of color. The garden is vast and nearly limitless, and literally overflowing with flowers.
The purpose of the depicting the astonishing palette of colors in the Garden of the Muses is to give the reader something really wonderful, colorful and magical to enjoy.
But it’s also to give readers a sense of just what the Nine Muses actually are. The Nine Muses are nine sisters, who inspire great works of art. The very air they breathe is, literally, magical.
Henry notices, when he first enters the garden, that the air is alive with color, and everything seems to be freshly painted, as if an artist is painting the scene on canvas.
It's an accurate observation. The Muses don’t just inspire or create art -- they are art. They’re the living embodiments of poetry, or music, or dance.
So, of course, if there are flowers in their garden, they will have a nearly limitless palette of colors. They don’t have to choose between red or white or pink or yellow roses, because they have every single color from any part of human history at their disposal. Any color and any combination of colors.
The flowers that spring up around them, too, aren’t just something to look at. Humans look at a flower that’s been created, and enjoy the beauty of a temporal thing. The Muses, on the other hand, breathe creative energy into the entire world. So, they not only enjoy the flowers around them, but they're actually part of them.
(On a side note, you might consider that in later Judeo-Christian tradition, there was also a very important garden mentioned as both the place of divine creation and the scene of the downfall of the human race -- the Garden of Eden.)
Flowers are beautiful, as the Muses are, but flowers aren’t something that they’re given for their birthday. Flowers are something they actually breathe into being, the same way they’d breathe a painted picture, or a new book, into being.
The flowers, to the Muses, wouldn’t be objects, as much as they would nearly be living thoughts. Gardens are a metaphor for life, but the Nine Muses -- and their garden -- are more than the metaphor. They don't paint with pigments, they paint with life, itself.
[Additional info you'd like to add: URLs, next tour stop info, related links, your review link, etc.]
Text:
The Garden of the Muses is a visual explosion of color. The garden is vast and nearly limitless, and literally overflowing with flowers.
The purpose of the depicting the astonishing palette of colors in the Garden of the Muses is to give the reader something really wonderful, colorful and magical to enjoy.
But it’s also to give readers a sense of just what the Nine Muses actually are. The Nine Muses are nine sisters, who inspire great works of art. The very air they breathe is, literally, magical.
Henry notices, when he first enters the garden, that the air is alive with color, and everything seems to be freshly painted, as if an artist is painting the scene on canvas.
It's an accurate observation. The Muses don’t just inspire or create art -- they are art. They’re the living embodiments of poetry, or music, or dance.
So, of course, if there are flowers in their garden, they will have a nearly limitless palette of colors. They don’t have to choose between red or white or pink or yellow roses, because they have every single color from any part of human history at their disposal. Any color and any combination of colors.
The flowers that spring up around them, too, aren’t just something to look at. Humans look at a flower that’s been created, and enjoy the beauty of a temporal thing. The Muses, on the other hand, breathe creative energy into the entire world. So, they not only enjoy the flowers around them, but they're actually part of them.
(On a side note, you might consider that in later Judeo-Christian tradition, there was also a very important garden mentioned as both the place of divine creation and the scene of the downfall of the human race -- the Garden of Eden.)
Flowers are beautiful, as the Muses are, but flowers aren’t something that they’re given for their birthday. Flowers are something they actually breathe into being, the same way they’d breathe a painted picture, or a new book, into being.
The flowers, to the Muses, wouldn’t be objects, as much as they would nearly be living thoughts. Gardens are a metaphor for life, but the Nine Muses -- and their garden -- are more than the metaphor. They don't paint with pigments, they paint with life, itself.
[Additional info you'd like to add: URLs, next tour stop info, related links, your review link, etc.]
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