This post is part of the August Blog Chain at Absolute Write. This month’s theme is color as a metaphor for an aspect of one’s writing.
Graham’s apartment was lit well enough from the streetlights below that Allison was able to find her way around without fumbling for a light switch. WJR was playing quietly in the dark, combining with the rain on the windows to generate a sheet of white noise.
“Nice place,” Allison muttered, glancing at the spare surroundings and the heap of dishes in the sink. Her gaze alighted on the overstuffed armchair in front of the radio. “What’s with the purple loveseat?”
“Purple’s my favorite color,” Graham said. “I’ve loved it ever since I had a little cast-iron toy truck that was that shade. Poor old girl was down to her last flecks when Mom melted her down for a scrap drive during the war.”
“Even so, purple doesn’t seem like your color,” Allison said, settling into the chair. “It wouldn’t strike most people as very manly, though it’s anyone’s guess how much raw masculinity matters to someone in your line of work.”
“Not just any purple,” replied Graham. “A very ancient and powerful hue they called ‘Tyrian purple.’ You could smell the sea-slugs they boiled in its manufacture for miles, and only emperors were allowed to wear it. Then, in time, people got to thinking it was a softer color, a pretty color, and now if you see purple at all it’s on a lady’s dress. Slumming in the fashion industry to pay the bills when once only the most powerful man in the world had the right to use it.”
“You think that’s a sad fate for a color that once represented absolutist oppression, huh? Some might say that purple’s gotten its poetic due.”
Graham shrugged. “I feel like purple and I both have a lot in common, in point of fact. Our best days are behind us, and we’re left to grind out what we can in a long, slow afterlife. Such potential, at the beginning, all wasted. So it’s livening up ladies’ dresses while I sit here with a job that can’t afford to pay me. Made into a handbag against your will or chasing down an overdue library book because you’ve got nothing better to doβ¦I’d say there’s a kinship there, wouldn’t you?”
Graham gazed at his shoes as he spoke; Allison felt like she out to do something to lighten the mood, which the weather had already rendered depressing enough. “Being a handbag isn’t the worst thing in the world,” she said. “I know a few alligators that are dying to be just that.”
“Ostriches too,” Graham said, smiling a little. “And I could teach them a thing or two about putting your head in the sand.”
Check out this month’s other bloggers, all of whom have posted or will post an entry of their own about a colors as metaphors for aspects of writing:
AheΓ―la (direct link to the relevant post)
Ralph_Pines (direct link to the relevant post)
AuburnAssassin (direct link to the relevant post)
semmie (direct link to the relevant post)
Anarchicq (direct link to the relevant post)
CScottMorris (direct link to the relevant post)
PASeasholtz (direct link to the relevant post)
LadyMage (direct link to the relevant post)
DavidZahir (direct link to the relevant post)
aimeelaine (direct link to the relevant post)
FreshHell (direct link to the relevant post)
sbclark (direct link to the relevant post)
Bettedra (direct link to the relevant post)
Guardian (direct link to the relevant post)
M.R.J. Le Blanc (direct link to the relevant post)
laffarsmith (direct link to the relevant post)
August 9, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I like this! Everyone always has a new twist on the same theme.
August 11, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Thanks! I’ve really enjoyed seeing people’s different approaches too.
August 9, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I get the sense from Graham that he is set in his ways and hard to move from them.
August 11, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Then you’ve gotten exactly the sense you were intended to π The character’s meant to be stuck in (and roused from!) a rut.
August 9, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Fascinating how such a simple thing, a color, can be invested in so many ways with so very many meanings.
August 11, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Especially considering that I’m the second person to choose purple π
August 10, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Very cool way to add to the chain! Great post.
August 11, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Thank you!
August 10, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Nice, Alex! I want to know more about Graham! Great job, and great writing!
August 11, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Thanks! This is a prototype scene for something I want to do for this year’s NaNoWriMo, so you may just get your wish.
August 11, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Awesome! I’ve always admired purple’s origins. Just like the unicorn, the two used to be sought after by kings. Now everyone assumes they’re only for girls. π
August 11, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Good point! The unicorn and purple are soulmates…and the purple unicorns have it worst of all π
August 11, 2010 at 7:52 pm
This excerpt really makes me want more. Great post!
August 11, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Many thanks π And as I told Semmie above, there will definitely be more, unlike the majority of the excerpts.
August 12, 2010 at 11:37 am
I love purple too! π
August 19, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Right on!
August 12, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Very creative take on this month’s topic. Nicely done.
August 19, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Thanks!
August 25, 2010 at 12:41 am
Can you believe I Googled “tyrian purple” to get an idea of the exact shade Graham talks about? lol It’s gorgeous! I’m a lover of all shades of purple but I think this one is my new favorite.
I love seeing you pull the color conversation into fiction and how Graham feels an emotional connection to the color and the evolution of that color through time. The resplendent royal purple, or “tyrian purple” represented the strength of an emperor to him and in empathizing with its downfall we get a strong impression of the kind of man he must be. A sense of arrogance, pride, and charisma.
August 29, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Thanks so much for the detailed comment! This prompt really resonated with me, to the point that I think aspects of this piece will be carried over into the longer work I’m planning.
And Tyrian Purple is unquestionably the best purple π