On Color

By: David Scott Kastan, Stephen Farthing

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's 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.

Wow! Great.

As good as non fiction gets. So well written and performed. I have read twice for the details on each color and the literary connection. And Robertson Dean made me feel like I was sitting around a fireplace with curious and beautiful people - made beautiful by their excitement and appreciation.

Huge Waste off time.

The books takes hours just to say nothing!
You hear countless examples of the use of colors.

Fantastic book!

If you’re interested in etymology and art this sis a great book! Love it how many details are mentioned. And it’s included in audible membership (so it’s free to listen).

Bored

The monotonous tone of the speaker was uninteresting, and I had a hard time ingesting the first chapter.

Nice Addition to Vast Array of Books About Color

Color is a broad topic that can be approached in a variety of ways. This results in a lifetime of enjoyable reading. DSK's book is current, informative, thought-provoking, and Robertson Dean's narration is excellent.

Can You Say Boring?

I'm an artist. I love color. I was excited to find this book, hoping it would help me understand color better and use it in more wonderful and varied ways.

But no.

B-O-R-I-N-G. "Red is red. Unless the lights are off. Then is it red? Maybe yes. Maybe no." OK. That sums up the first 40 minutes. Do I need to say more?

Don't waste your time.

A delicate use of power

I liked this book overwhelmed me. I am so impressed about how beautifully the painter and the writer combined their strength to open my eyes to so much Beauty. Having been educated in Western art history and having had the privilege of seeing The Monuments have Western Civilization as well as those of the Orient, I feel that I was an ignorant person until I read this book. You paragraph I will read it again with great pleasure.

somewhat rather disappointed

This book is less about color than it is about conjecture and contemplation on the ideology of the humans who use them.

LOVE

Loved the reading of the amazing words! I zoomed through it so quickly! Couldn’t stop listening :)

Excellent contemporary art theory

I was apprehensive going into this book, but do you contemporary references, cultural relevance, an explanation of historical context were excellent! A must read for any art teacher, student, designer. I can’t wait to reread this one!

A waste of time

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

Not long enough !

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

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.

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.

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.

informative and fascinating

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

Preferred Kassia St Clair

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

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.

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.