1a) Generally speaking, “-phobia” indicates a fear of some sort and “-philia” indicates an unnatural attraction or a tendency. Batchelor speaks of chromophobia as loathing colour, having a fear of contamination through colour. Chromophobia indicates an urge to purge colour, diminish it, devalue and deny the complexity of colour. In these cases, he talks about colour as being ‘other’ as feminine, oriental, primitive etc. He speaks of chomophilia on the other hand as comparable to drugs as a state of ecstasy, bliss, as though falling into colour is like falling into grace or a state of desire. In this sense, colour indicates a loss of control and of consciousness. He sums these ideas up by saying that chromophobia realizes colour and then attempts to play it down while chromophilia realizes colour and in return attempts to play it up.
b) Does West experience one more than other? I think Western culture experiences both, although I think it’s really difficult to say which is experienced more on a whole level.
c) When I think of having a fear of colour or fear of contamination through colour I think about Western culture and this desire to fit in and not stand out, and to not do things out of the ordinary that would make people think that you are strange or abnormal. However as many people as there are who are like that, there are just as many who go out of the way to be different, and colour is a signifier of difference. However it’s so hard to be ordinary because it’s as though everything has already been done before, and is already a part of a group that already exists as something. So what I guess I’m trying to say is that when I think about these fears and wishes for colour I think about our worries about conformity…
2) Examples of colour lying over the surface include all types cosmetics (nailpolish, lipstick, hair dye, blush etc) all of which the role of colour is to disguise the natural state of what is underneath so it functions as an artificial mask. I’m having trouble trying to think of an example outside of film where colour is underneath the surface; however maybe I could say that colour is under the surface in the darkness? Colour is masked by the lack of light in the darkness and when the lights come on, colour is revealed. However I don’t think I know how to say in that sense what colours function is when it is masked by darkness. Maybe blood could be an example, because beneath the surface it is invisible and or appears blue but once exposed to oxygen it is revealed as red, so I suppose that the colour red in this case functions as a signifier of a wound, or puncture of the skin and to indicate that the blood has come in contact with oxygen. Red lights, black lights, tinted windows are all things that mask real colour and colour is not revealed until this artificial light or window are removed and the colour beneath is revealed. So I guess these things function to mask colour and are on the surface of colour and alter our natural states of vision.
3) The movie What Dreams May Come uses colour in a very significant way throughout the movie. The colours blue and red are really evident throughout the whole film, however the clips that I am posting portray a fall into colour from what I can see. In this part of the movie, Robin Williams has already passed away and his wife is having a hard time coping with his death. He keeps staying close to her and attempting to make her hold on to him and think that he is still there, where in reality he is no longer physically there with her. Each time that she senses his presence she only gets upset and angered, and usually ends up in tears. The scene right before the intense colour arrives, the wife is at the grave of Robin Williams and the colours seem quite muted, except for a strong use of greys and blue. He tries one more time to let her know that he is there and that he still exists and when he sees this time how much doing so is actually only hurting her, he says goodbye. When he wakes up after coming to terms with the fact that he has died and that reality is over, he must stop hurting her, he wakes up in a world saturated with bright, intense, liquid colour. This is his fall into grace, as he falls from a world trying to force his wife to hold on to him, and lands in a world where he has accepted his absence on Earth; he has entered his own Heaven.
4a) When Baudelaire speaks of colour as being autonomous, he refers to colourists and how colour in this sense is not a fall of civilization but rather a sign of actual civilization. In this awareness, there is an appreciation of colour and a rise above nature.
b) I think that a rather obvious example of colour having the power to be autonomous is in abstract and expressionist painting. The artists who are using colour in these works of art are using it in a way that has no clear connection to actual recognizable objects; therefore colour is used autonomously as something that stands on its own without having reference to anything familiar or decipherable.
5) When Des Esseintes speaks about the scenes in Against Nature I can’t help but think about drugs in general as an example of something that could relate to these ideas. He speaks of how colour can both conceal and enhance, well so can drugs, and they can also suffocate life. He says that the taste for artificial leads to a neglect for the real and how satisfaction can no longer be achieved with the artificial because that which is artificial becomes confused with nature or rather what is natural. So I think that there are a number of films that deal with drugs as subject matter for mistaking the artificial (under the influence of drugs) with that of the real (being in a sober state) and this need for more of the artificial. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thirteen, Trainspotting, Candy.
6) I’m not sure what to say as a concept that I disagree with because I feel that all of the thoughts are well spoken about and give a clear visual of how they are used. As of right now in the readings I can’t put a finger on a disagreeable concept.
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