Synesthesia
Feb. 25th, 2006 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Original character Kris has always been a synesthete and I never knew it until a few weeks ago. I thought he was just sort of like everyone else in that way.
"I hate the colors," he said, raising one hand to his forehead as if to sheild his eyes. "Orange especially. So loud."
...He shrugs and tries to brush her off, knowing that brushing her off isn't ever an option, but still making the effort. The sun is shining. The weather is warm and tastes like melting chocolate.
...There was black, white, blue, red, and a horrible screaming orange that seemed to lurk in the background of all of these colors. Those colors had voices. Black's voice was a low, even hum, white's voice was a whistle. Blue screamed in a jagged, high pitched voice, and red was a coarse shout. Orange though, was the loudest. It shrieked at an even higher pitch than blue, and their frequencies and volumes changed everytime they moved.
I never questioned it, having taken it from my own experience. Write what you know, right? I never knew it had a name, even.
I always assumed everyone saw, felt, and heard colors. Red has always been heat, right? Fire, lust, anger, all kinds of passion, things associated with fire and blood. Blue has always been chilly, things associated with ice. This is not so unusual, is it?
But I can remember getting colors wrong in kindergarten, most specifically blue and brown. Because chocolate has always tasted blue to me. Mrs. MacCrimmon used to get on my case for mixing those colors up all the time. It used to bug me how Count Chocola was brown, because his cereal was supposed to be chocolate, and chocolate tasted blue. I just naturally assumed that everyone understood that chocolate was blue, and I remember that my Mom finally corrected me on this when I asked her why Count Chocola was brown. I could not get over it. How could chocolate not be blue? I remember her telling me that blueberries were blue, and this confused me further. Blueberry clearly tasted yellow, or maybe light gold. (Wasn't there a cereal called BOOberry at some point?)
Yet I can remember my friends and family always discussing the colors of voices: a yellow voice, a blue voice, things like that. As a teenager, I knew that Geoff Tate from Queensryche had a voice that was vanilla ice cream, or a creamy off-white. Not a metaphor, that's just how I hear it. It only goes one way, though: Vanilla ice cream does not taste like Geoff Tate's voice.
Guitar solos are usually yellow (usually ones from before the 80s) but some are silver. Drums are brown, deep bass notes are blue, and synthesizer sounds are gold. Pain--especially head pain--has always been orange. Loud noise is orange. The wind is blue. Fear is shining copper. My own voice is yellow, but I wish it were brown, because I like brown voices; they are sexy. Dog barks are also brown--big dogs, at least.
It just really shocks me that there is a name for this and it's some kind of condition. I always just figured that everyone had these associations about some things.
"I hate the colors," he said, raising one hand to his forehead as if to sheild his eyes. "Orange especially. So loud."
...He shrugs and tries to brush her off, knowing that brushing her off isn't ever an option, but still making the effort. The sun is shining. The weather is warm and tastes like melting chocolate.
...There was black, white, blue, red, and a horrible screaming orange that seemed to lurk in the background of all of these colors. Those colors had voices. Black's voice was a low, even hum, white's voice was a whistle. Blue screamed in a jagged, high pitched voice, and red was a coarse shout. Orange though, was the loudest. It shrieked at an even higher pitch than blue, and their frequencies and volumes changed everytime they moved.
I never questioned it, having taken it from my own experience. Write what you know, right? I never knew it had a name, even.
I always assumed everyone saw, felt, and heard colors. Red has always been heat, right? Fire, lust, anger, all kinds of passion, things associated with fire and blood. Blue has always been chilly, things associated with ice. This is not so unusual, is it?
But I can remember getting colors wrong in kindergarten, most specifically blue and brown. Because chocolate has always tasted blue to me. Mrs. MacCrimmon used to get on my case for mixing those colors up all the time. It used to bug me how Count Chocola was brown, because his cereal was supposed to be chocolate, and chocolate tasted blue. I just naturally assumed that everyone understood that chocolate was blue, and I remember that my Mom finally corrected me on this when I asked her why Count Chocola was brown. I could not get over it. How could chocolate not be blue? I remember her telling me that blueberries were blue, and this confused me further. Blueberry clearly tasted yellow, or maybe light gold. (Wasn't there a cereal called BOOberry at some point?)
Yet I can remember my friends and family always discussing the colors of voices: a yellow voice, a blue voice, things like that. As a teenager, I knew that Geoff Tate from Queensryche had a voice that was vanilla ice cream, or a creamy off-white. Not a metaphor, that's just how I hear it. It only goes one way, though: Vanilla ice cream does not taste like Geoff Tate's voice.
Guitar solos are usually yellow (usually ones from before the 80s) but some are silver. Drums are brown, deep bass notes are blue, and synthesizer sounds are gold. Pain--especially head pain--has always been orange. Loud noise is orange. The wind is blue. Fear is shining copper. My own voice is yellow, but I wish it were brown, because I like brown voices; they are sexy. Dog barks are also brown--big dogs, at least.
It just really shocks me that there is a name for this and it's some kind of condition. I always just figured that everyone had these associations about some things.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 07:08 am (UTC)I sometimes get vague color impressions of things, though usually I would have to think about it a bit to decide what color something sounds or smells or tastes. And usually there's an association with a color we generally see as going with that sensation. For me it's more of a way of describing things in new and interesting ways, rather than how I automatically see things.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 03:54 pm (UTC)Maybe that's an aspect of creativity and imagination, and synesthesia is when you can't help it, and those colors / sounds / whatever won't leave you alone. For instance, chocolate still tastes blue to me, even after all these years, and as a child it took a lot of straightening out before I could get my colors right.
Very odd!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 08:16 am (UTC)And people all together have a color, not just voices. ^^ My mom is warm, light blue. My dad and my sister are both brown, but dad's more gold. My grandma was silvery, with a little gold around the edges. Both of my grandpas were blue and white striped. ^^
no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 03:53 pm (UTC)Of course, seeing auras and synesthesia are probably two terms for the same thing, and it depends on whether you ask a spiritual person or a pychologist. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 04:12 pm (UTC)Yeah, I think we take for granted how stimulating one sense is to the others. I have really strong scent memories, too.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 10:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 03:51 pm (UTC)Not sure where to leave this, but
Date: 2006-02-25 04:13 pm (UTC)Re: Not sure where to leave this, but
Date: 2006-02-25 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-25 06:13 pm (UTC)But now the idea of "synesthesia" is starting to bug me. Why do we need a name for everything? ;)