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April 10, 2015

Black on Black

alightflowing.jpg
Light flowing forth from the blackness, from Fludd’s Utriusque Cosmi (1617)

Does black designate a “colour” that does not reflect light (and if so, why label it a colour?), or does black designate the “colour” that results in the total absence of light? Without light, no colour, and without colour, there is only black – and yet black is not a colour. But this is not exactly right, for black is a colour, not only in the sense in which we routinely designate this or that object as “black” but in the sense that black contains all colours, the colour that absorbs all other colours into the non-colour of black – the black hole of colour, as it were. We see black, but what exactly are we seeing when we see black? Light, or the absence of light? And if the latter, how is it possible to see the absence of light?
| The Public Domain Review

Posted by gerardvanderleun at April 10, 2015 9:01 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

Just because it's impossible doesn't mean it doesn't occur. Just because your black, mad dog Fido is invisible doesn't mean he won't bite you, thereby likely proving that his bite is as real as his bark. And suppose Fido barks up the wrong tree -- will the tree bark back?

Posted by: Stug Guts [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 10, 2015 10:05 AM

Looks like this black track is on the crack rack. A snack attack doesn't hack flack on the tarmac, Jack.

If you want to see Blacks in the dark wait until they smile. At night all cats are gray.

Q: If a color falls in the forest and there's nobody there to see it, what color is it?

A: Black

According to my uncle Letsgo Lozko, King of the Bantams, black chickens are considered good luck.

My clan, The Spillers of Soup, roamed Northern Europe until well into the Black Ages.

This guy had the kind of blackouts I am familiar with:
“I’m an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard." Raymond Chandler

Posted by: chasmatic [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 10, 2015 10:53 AM

Breathe deep the gathering gloom, watch lights fade from every room. Bedsitter people look back and lament, another day's useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one, lonely man cries for love and has none. New mother picks up and suckles her son, Senior citizens wish they were young.

Cold hearted orb that rules the night, removes the colors from our sight, red is gray and yellow, white. But we decide which is right, and which is an illusion?

Posted by: ghostsniper [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 10, 2015 2:55 PM

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