avatarCarolyn Hastings

Summary

Carolyn Hastings explores the enigmatic nature of magenta, a color without a wavelength that symbolizes universal love and is significant in the printing industry.

Abstract

In "Mysteries of Magenta," Carolyn Hastings delves into the unique properties of the color magenta, which she describes as an "aberration of the mind." Unlike other colors, magenta does not have a specific place on the light spectrum; instead, it is perceived by the brain when it combines the red and violet ends of the spectrum. Hastings, whose favorite color is blue, chose to write about magenta after previously covering blue in her work. She connects magenta to the concept of universal love, suggesting that its existence as a blend of polar opposites reflects harmony and balance. Despite magenta's absence in the natural world, it holds practical importance in the CMYK color model used in printing. Hastings also acknowledges the influence of other writers, such as Lee Ameka and William J Spirdione, in prompting her exploration of magenta through the "Red-ok-write-about-any-colour" prompt and the concept of "twittles," which are micro-poems of exactly one hundred characters.

Opinions

  • Carolyn Hastings expresses a personal fascination with colors, with blue being her favorite, yet she finds magenta particularly intriguing due to its unique status in color perception.
  • She posits that the brain's creation of magenta from non-adjacent ends of the visible spectrum is akin to a cognitive override, which adds to the color's mystique.
  • Hastings suggests a symbolic link between magenta and universal love, implying that the color's blend of red and violet represents the merging of contrasts into a harmonious whole.
  • She notes the paradoxical nature of magenta as a color that "doesn't exist" in the natural world, yet is crucial in synthetic dyes and the printing industry as part of the CMYK color model.
  • The author appreciates the creative community on Medium, expressing gratitude to those who inspired her to explore magenta through the "twittle" writing format and invites others to join in the creative process.
  • Hastings reflects on the philosophical implications of magenta's existence, questioning the nature of universal love and whether it, too, is a construct of the human mind.

Mysteries of Magenta

A colour twittle explained

Image constructed by author using free photo stock (see footnote for image credits)

The mysteries of magenta an aberration of the human mind red and violet spectral ends embrace universal love of mankind

© Carolyn Hastings 2021

I love colours. My favourite is blue but that doesn’t mean I don’t like other colours. I do. I love them all. It’s just that I love blue the most.

So why didn’t I write a twittle about blue? That’s because I’ve already written one!

Sure, I could’ve written another one — and I probably will one day — but I wanted to write a twittle about magenta. To my knowledge, we don’t have a magenta twittle — now we do!

I discovered the mysteries of magenta when I was researching a poem I wrote earlier in the year, The Colour of Eudaimonia.

The line I wrote for magenta went like this -

Magenta convergent opposites triumphant cerebral epiphany a symphony of universal love CH 2021

I went on to explain that magenta is the only colour that doesn’t have a wavelength.

It’s literally an aberration of the mind whereby the brain overrides the colour spectrum so that the average of long wavelength red and short wavelength violet is perceived as magenta and not green. The brain, in effect, recasts the light spectrum as a wheel bringing together the violet and red spectral ends to complete the loop. Is it any wonder that magenta should symbolise universal love? CH 2021

✥ Magenta ✥ Universal love ✥ Harmony and balance ✥ Transformation ✥ and everything else you’d expect when polar opposites blend together in happy co-existence. 😊

Except magenta doesn’t exist. Not in the real world anyway.

So, where does that leave universal love? 💞

In the same place as magenta? An aberration of the mind? A perception of something we can never have? 😯 Oh, dear. Sorry if that thought bursts your feel-good, love bubble. 😬

Since magenta isn’t a pigment that can be extracted from anything in the natural world, the dye that produces the magenta colour is a man-made synthetic. And an important one at that. It’s the ‘M’ in the CMYK colour model (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) that is used in printing presses and computer printers.

If you’re looking for the scientific theory behind magenta, Amelia Settembre has written a fascinating article on the subject -

Thank you to Lee Ameka and for tagging me into her Red Bulb — Red-ok-write-about-any-colour prompt. 🙏

Thank you also to William J Spirdione for tagging me into the prompt via his twittle of green —

How could I refuse a twittle opportunity?!

As Lee explains, a twittle is ‘exactly one hundred (alphabetical) characters in a four-line micro poem.’

I’ve been choofing the twittle train around Medium since October last year. We now have quite a collection of happy twittlers on board but there’s always room for more. Join us. 😄 🚂

Extra thanks to Lee for welcoming me into her wonderful publication, Self-Crafted, and to all of you for reading. 🙏 💕

Image credits

Background image — Image by David Zydd from Pixabay Flower images (left to right) — - Image by Anne & Saturnino Miranda from Pixabay - Image by Martin Hetto from Pixabay - Image by mhoward9 from Pixabay

Poetry
Twittle
Colors
Light
Perception
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