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Title: Color: A Natural History of the Palette
Author: Victoria Finlay
Genre: Anthropology
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: Kind of random historical analysis of various pigments--where different colors came from, how they were made, etc.
Thoughts: A meditation on the origins of different dyes and paints through human history, this book seems mostly to be an excuse for the author to travel to exotic lands and harass the people living there.
It's interesting, for the most part. She talks to Aborigines about ochre, Mexican fishermen about purple, experts in Chinese pottery and Incan textiles and Spanish crocus growing. There's a lot of painful history, including poisonous paints and slave-grown indigo. A lot of cool factoids, as well.
But at the same time, I had the growing sense that the author was being self-indulgent. She interviews a man who tried to help the Aborigines and failed and whose life is blighted as a result. She gets a guy to take her out to look for sea snails in life-threatening conditions. She bullies her way into Afghanistan during the height of the Taliban's reign so she can see the mine where lapis lazuli comes from. And it's not like she's some investigative reporter who will bring home a story to open people's eyes to the plight of the people who she talks to. She's writing about paint. And I couldn't help but wonder if maybe the poor folk at the embassy had something better to do with their time than help her get in with the UN workers.
That said, it's a diverting little book that's informative and entertaining, if not enthralling and earth-shattering.
Author: Victoria Finlay
Genre: Anthropology
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: Kind of random historical analysis of various pigments--where different colors came from, how they were made, etc.
Thoughts: A meditation on the origins of different dyes and paints through human history, this book seems mostly to be an excuse for the author to travel to exotic lands and harass the people living there.
It's interesting, for the most part. She talks to Aborigines about ochre, Mexican fishermen about purple, experts in Chinese pottery and Incan textiles and Spanish crocus growing. There's a lot of painful history, including poisonous paints and slave-grown indigo. A lot of cool factoids, as well.
But at the same time, I had the growing sense that the author was being self-indulgent. She interviews a man who tried to help the Aborigines and failed and whose life is blighted as a result. She gets a guy to take her out to look for sea snails in life-threatening conditions. She bullies her way into Afghanistan during the height of the Taliban's reign so she can see the mine where lapis lazuli comes from. And it's not like she's some investigative reporter who will bring home a story to open people's eyes to the plight of the people who she talks to. She's writing about paint. And I couldn't help but wonder if maybe the poor folk at the embassy had something better to do with their time than help her get in with the UN workers.
That said, it's a diverting little book that's informative and entertaining, if not enthralling and earth-shattering.
