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On Color

By: David Scott Kastan, Stephen Farthing
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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Summary

Our lives are saturated by color. We live in a world of colors, and color marks our psychological and social existence. But for all color's ubiquity, we don't know much about it. Authors David Scott Kastan and Stephen Farthing offer a fresh and imaginative exploration of one of the most intriguing and least-understood aspects of everyday experience.

Kastan and Farthing, a scholar and a painter, investigate color from numerous perspectives: literary, historical, cultural, anthropological, philosophical, art historical, political, and scientific. In 10 wide-ranging chapters, each devoted to a different color, they examine the various ways colors have shaped and continue to shape our social and moral imaginations. Each individual color becomes the focal point for a consideration of one of the extraordinary ways in which color appears and matters in our lives. This is a remarkably smart, entertaining, and fascinating guide to an elusive topic.

Ranging from Homer to Picasso to The Wizard of Oz, this spirited and radiant audiobook awakens us anew to the role of color in our world.

©2018 David Scott Kastan and Stephen Farthing (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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What listeners say about On Color

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Ok. A pleasant tour of various different topics

Solid reading, but not outstanding. I would recommend this to people who are generally curious. I learnt several interesting anecdotes and facts about physics, politics, etymology, history, philosophy, etc. Best part for me personally is gaining seeds of insights into history of modern art, as the relevance of several famous pieces were discussed.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

informative and fascinating

great insights and facts with a very pleasant voice leading you through the spectrum journey.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

colour from a different perspective

This covered things I'd never have thought of. Needs more than one listening to fully take on board various concepts. Further research and looking at images would make this 5 star overall for me.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved the information and the way it was categorised and broken down … fascinating

I didn’t like the monotone narration which also mispronounced some of the artists names. Very robotic delivery.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Tired of books that moralise at you?

This book is very interesting and well written but it digresses many times into moralistic opinions dressed up as facts. Many books these days suffer from this.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting subject, monotonous delivery

Concise compilation of everything you might like to know about colour. This book covers; the scientific basics of colour and light; the historical prominence of colours; international meanings attributed to colours; cultural, literary and artistic uses of colour; and so much more.

I did find the narrator monotonous and dreary, but you can't have everything.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Preferred Kassia St Clair

The reading is robotic and the 'story' devoid of passion about the subject matter.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not long enough !

I really learnt a lot and would probably listen to it again in the future

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A book of nothing

This book is an example of how to use words to say nothing.
The narrator's monotone voice didn't help with the endless repartition of words.
There are some third party quotes which are interesting and the book has raised my awareness to colour.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A waste of time

Violets aren't blue
Roses aren't red
Colors arn't real
It's all in your head

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1 person found this helpful