Complementary colour after-images can be simply explained in terms of the neuronal processing in the retina; they are caused by fatigued cells responding to light so that for instance, when you stare at a white surface after looking at a red image, your eyes subtract the red and you see its complementary colour green.
Perhaps that’s what we are experiencing here after our overdose of bright this month. In this town the greenest spot is the blinking sign on the pharmacy, and our neurones seem to be rewarding us with after-images of post-war reconstruction drab.
Just outside our window there’s a gruesome monument depicting the young Chevalier de la Barre being tortured then burnt to death. His mistake apparently, was singing a song that was “disrespectful to morality”. Admittedly he should have known better in a town which once housed fifteen churches, fifteen convents and eleven religious orders, but still it all seems a bit harsh in the cold light of seven centuries later. We couldn’t help but wonder just how many anti-depressants must be sold here in the bleak of winter, but we’ll try to love it again in a week or so, all the while trying not to hum along to any disrespectful song which may be burbling in our earpods.
No comments
Post a Comment