STORYTELLING

BLACKED OUT

On a table for four, An artist had gathered three scholars to share his hypothesis and get their opinion.

“Well I have been 40 years in discovering that the Queen of all colors was Black!”,  announced the authoritative voice of the famous french artist. This announcement earned him a satisfied nod from the first scholar and a doubtful gaze that burned with offense from the second scholar. The third scholar however studied one face after the other with sheer confusion.

“Indeed, it symboplizes elegance, wealth, restraint and power” the first scholar added.

“Well that’s rubbish! The colour black is linked to death, mourninf, evil, magic and darkness” the second scholar spoke, “How can such a colour reign over all the other colours!?”

“Oh don’t you know, that black was the first ever pigment used by artists in prehistory and the first ink used by book printers. The colour black played an important role in the development of art and literature.” Said the first scholar.

“Domine, the word for ‘black’ ater is associated with cruelty and evil. ‘Atrocious’ and ‘Atrocity’ are derived from this Latinate stem. It is no surprise, then, that in medieval paintings the devil was painted in black.” the first schoclar said.

“Really! Then what would you say to the Benedictine monks, who wore black robes as a sign of humilty and penitence in the 12th century.” 

“Well I would say, that in the 21st century I don’t see any monk with black robes on. Those monks were challenged by the Cisterians who wore white as they accused that black was a colour of the devil, death and sin, while their own white symbolized purity and innocence.” said the second scholar.

“I suppose you haven’t read the literature in the Victorian era." The first scholar said with mocked disappointment," Where the characters streaked in black suits and coats were identified as the elitist noblemen of the town.”

"How do black clothes define nobility?"

"Well you see up until the 15th century the finest clothes were dyed in red, blue or purple dye- not black. But the arrival of high-quality black dyed and the implementation of laws restricting coloured cloth to nobility meant that wealthy Italian bankers began wearing black clothes as a sign of importance. And slowly kings all over Europe began to take notice and soon adopted the black style themselves."

The second scholar seemed to ponder upon this information so the first scholar continued his monologue, 

"And the colour was indeed a very important part of the romantic movement in literature. Black was the colour of melancholy, the dominant theme of romanticism."

"I agree with that, but what about the stark contrast seen in the works of Mark Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe and many such Gothic poets and writers who stuck largely to red and black colour symbolism in their work, shoring up their tales with darkness, mystery and the difficulty of human reason."

The first scholar was thinking about a comeback for this argument but couldn't find any, 

"Well," the artist said, as the third scholar sat their sipping this coffee, " neither of you are wrong you know. When I announced Black as the Queen of all colours, I was fully aware of its flawlessly flawed nature. As it symbolises elegance, wealth and power it also depicts the mystery, void and profane. It beautifully justifies both sides of this coin. And it is indeed an internal colour, the colour which will remain, the only colour that will survive the infernal fire, as a symbol of all that was burnt." 

A pause. The artist looked at the third scholar who was still lost in thought, eyes fixed on this coffee mug. 

"Well, what you have to say about that my dear. You have been awfully quiet throughout this whole discussion."

"Ah well, I was just here share the result of our newest experiment which conducted successfully."  A word for praise was exchanged.

"Thank you all. Yeah so, according our newest scientific experiment we have declared the colour white and black are practically outcasts in the world of colours." 

The most awkward silence stirred in that room,

"Sorry, WHAT !?" 

"Yeah, according to our expirement, black is just absence of light. So we have decided to declare it as a No-colour. Well, that was the result of our expirement. Now if you will excuse me, I need to refill my black coffee."

 As the third scholar left the table, three pairs of eyes stared at him, shock evident their vision and minds  blacked out!