>From: Lewis Jardine <jardine_at_rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk>
>Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 10:22:36 +0100
>Subject: Colour and Texture
>
>I liked the stuff on different cultures perception of colour and
>in the case of Uz texture. In the absence of hard science in the
>cultures I believe it would be quite possible for these systems to
>evolve. However, as cultures become more civilized I suspect that
>they evolve/create extra words to cover other colours even though
>they would be used less often than important colours such as
>imperial crimson, carmine, sunrise orange and dusk pink.
To me, one of the fun things about the Uz is that they challenge our definitions of what it means to be cultured or civilized. Like Biturian, I feel the Uz mind is more complex than most people give it credit for. I will also point out that the Japanese word 'midori' which means 'green' is a 20th century invention - for the entire history of Japanese culture prior to that, leaves were 'blue'. Hence, I don't believe that increasing cultural complexity necessarily leads to increased color description. This is more likely a function of language rather than the culture as a whole. Sort of Orwellian, if you take my meaning.
(snip)
> The idea of Uz using texture and grey-level appeals too much
>for me to ignore it. Grey levels are easier to start with and it
>might be useful to apply god/runic concept to their names:-
>
>Subere - Warm and pleasant
Maybe a human bias of yours is showing: perhaps Subere is _cold_ and pleasant! After all, they have a much greater fat layer than most :) humans.
>Xentha - Comfortable
>Storm - Limit of tolerability
>Yelm - Bloody unpleasant
Another reason why warm/heat may not be pleasant is, as you note, the Yelmic association with heat.
> Texture is of course harder.
Rather than go for what we humans called texture, I thought it would be more alien and more interesting to redefine texture in terms of the darkscan sonar and the metaphors we use such as "The darkness was so thick you could feel it wrap around you."
Best,
Glenn
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