The Colours in verbal explanation

[Belsamuel]

How would all of you out there describe the colour red, or any colour for that matter, to a person who cannot see if they asked you to? Would you use flavours as a similarity or the feelings you express? Would you compare it to the feeling of the warmth of the sun on your face or maybe the pain from a papercut?

Remember, this is your own interpretation. It's not a debate on the possibilities of if you can, it is a thread for those who think they can!

Please use lengthy explanations to keep this thread running. Don't be afraid to critisize the description before yours and try to take into consideration any of the questions you would be asked, like is it the throbbing pain of a healing wound or the incessant scream if an infected gash?

Be creative, be poetic, bring out your vocabulary to it's fullest! Don't hold back and remember that the person you are explaining it to has never seen anything before in their life, just taste, touch, sound and smell.

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[Chez Daja]

I really don't feel there's anyway to generalize on how to explain a colour to a blind person. There's really no way at all. I don't think visual association would be much use, what with the whole blind thing, heh.

As for feeling... I don't think you could really pin a colour on that either...
It must be frustrating for blind people...wondering what things look like. Funny story, when I was young I almost went blind... I needed to be in and out of the eye hospital for about five years until my eye sight was stable again. I'm glad I have my eyesight. I can appreciate all of the beautiful things in life... Back on the subject, though, I personally don't feel that there's any way to explain colour to somebody that has (I'm assuming) never even seen it...

[Belsamuel]

I suppose my thread starter needs a bit of work.... Let me fix it up a bit and see what I can do. But until the I will start off the thread.

Green - Crush a fresh leaf in your fingers and smell the aroma. The feeling of dewy grass between your toes and the feeling of it lightly brushing against the palm of your hands. Listen for that perfect point of silence when the sun rises over the horizon and spashes on your face. The sounds that envelop you at that moment, the rustling of the wind and the chirping of birs and crickets, are the sounds of green. Feel the juice from a greengage plum run down you chin as you bite into it's flesh and that is the taste of green.

All of that encompasses green to me. The feeling of mother nature and the blossoming of a new day. the natural feel of everything around you as you stand at the ley lines. People say that you cannot describe colours, but I feel that colours can be seen the best when seen thorugh another's eyes!

[Jin]

I really don't think that those descriptions would hold up for a blind person. I believe that the reason we associate the things you mentioned with their respective colours is because we've always seen them associated with it. If you've never seen the sun or something so hot that it's red and melting, then how would you associate the sun's heat with the colour red? Likewise with the leaf scenario. Although very poetic descriptions, I believe that we only think of them that way because we aready associate the description with the visual colour that we've seen before.

[Belsamuel]

........The point of it is though is how would YOU describe them....not do you think the descriptions would work. I'm not asking for an analytical responce or a theorom on the relativity of the colour. I'm asking for your interpretation of the colour using only the other senses!

Besindes......if you are saying this to a blind man....how is he going to double check just to make sure.......???

[Chez Daja]

...That was Jintatsu's point.

He used the logical explaination in the fact there really is no way to interpret colour if you're blind. As for explaining colour to somebody... how do you do that with the other senses? YES, there are ways in which objects/seasonsal things rmind one of colour... but there's no true explaination. They'll never truly know what colour is.

This is one of those "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" type of questions... It's hard to say. There also seems to be slight contradictions in your posts. You say one thing and then you say the opposite, it's hard to tell what you really want, since you disgaree whenever somebody tries to bring up a valid point...

[Belsamuel]

I contradict?....I don't notice it if I do and I apologise if I do! I just really wanted to know how other people would try and explain them. I do understand that it is a chicken/egg question, but just knowing what people's interpretations on colours is interesting to me.