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letters and colors and synesthesia
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I understand that Nabokov had synthesthesia. I wish I did, too! I'd love to see music in color.
janine wrote: "I have this with numbers."Seriously? How does that work?
Slight diversion...Koe, are those wildfires near you?
Larry wrote: "janine wrote: "I have this with numbers."Seriously? How does that work?"
It is just there. 2's are an orangy yellow, 8's are a purplish brown, 5's are light blue, 6's are dark blue.
I sometimes see letters that way, but never as clear as numbers. 'n' for instance is a light green, 's' is bright red.
Jackie "the Librarian" wrote: "I understand that Nabokov had synthesthesia. I wish I did, too! I'd love to see music in color."I had to learn a suite in colour when I was taking piano lessons. Each song was the name of a different colour, "Blue", "Orange", "Yellow". The music was an interpretation of colour. I can't remember the name of the composer, but she was quite avante garde for her time. I've tried Googling it, but nothing comes up. Now, I'll have to go home and dig out all my sheet music cause it bugs me now.
My best friend has synesthesia. She has said that the individual numbers and words are not as bright and clear as they used to be when she was younger, but peoples' names are brightly colored for her. It's just one more thing I can add to the list of things that make her awesome.
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This is fascinating and adds to how you can look at more modern art.My son is colour blind and I feel sorry that he misses out on most colours, (he sees blue), but he seems to get by and he talks about/identifies colours no problem so most people never realise he has it.
I don't know how he does it; he occassionally gets tripped up by the traditional mix-up colours (blue/purple, green/brown). Pink is the one he definitely never gets. It must be something with how they grow up seeing the world and having colours explained to them. There have been very successful colour blind snooker players!Not surprisingly his favourite colours are blue and black!
If you can forgive the irritating format of the web archive, you can read it here:http://web.archive.org/web/2008022008...
Holy moley!!! Nools! How the heck are ya? What've you been up to lately? And most importantly, I think you should participate in Sally's shebang. :)
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(Hello, Heidi & Larry!)Really wanted synesthesia, and especially after I took a course on Nabokov, who had it with language (I think someone mentioned him already somewhere up the thread; I return to TC a passionate lover of all things Nabsy). But I would also accept the gift of color-coded numbers/music/etc.
Nools, glad you could stop in for awhile again. Hope your school year went well.
I think if I had it, it would be awesomely cool. But, since I don't and I can't see it...I can only imagine how awesomely cool it would be, if I had it.
janine wrote: "Those colours are all wrong!"I agree! I do have synesthesia but figured everyone experienced the world this way until I ran across an old article in Discover many years ago. Then I asked my husband what color his "A" was and he had no idea what I was talking about. I was truly surprised to find out this was some sort of "condition" and not simply normal. (btw, A is red.) :)
...and sorry for the wrong color cognitive dissonance. :)":)
From what I've learned, there are some letter/number color combinations that occur more often; however, I almost can't bear to look at another synesthete's alphabet - I doubt any two ever match up completely.
Very cool article, Sarah, thank you!The only synesthesia I can lay claim to is that every scent has a color to me.
Jammies "Running with Fiskars" wrote: "Very cool article, Sarah, thank you!The only synesthesia I can lay claim to is that every scent has a color to me."
I see colors with scent too, but I'm not sure if it's as automatic as synesthesia, or if I'm just making associations.
janine wrote: "It's probably too sharp to be brown."Oh.
Barb wrote: "janine wrote: "It's probably too sharp to be brown."Ouch."
The smell, I'm talking about the smell!
Larry wrote: "Does manure smell ... brown?"Mulch, which is as close to manure as I ever get here in the wilds of suburbia, smells like a blackened yellow green.
My mom has it and associates colors with days of the week. As for me, I associate colors and smells.
This is a good book on the subject. I think it is written for middle school age kids, possibly high school but I read it a couple years ago and found it to be fascinating.
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Terminalcoffee
Books mentioned in this topic
A Mango-Shaped Space (other topics)The Empire of Ice Cream (other topics)
http://www.salon.com/life/imprint/ind...