Percy is mesmerized by deep sea creatures and Annabeth is… She’s definitely not. Grover is also not. Sally says she’s seen them before with a vague look of discomfort on her face. Estelle cries at the darkness and then again at the skin-tight face of a goblin shark. Paul sweats at the idea of going so deep into the dark ocean with only his stepson to protect him from the crushing water pressure.
But Nico likes them. He coos at every creepy face and traces sharp teeth and listens attentively as Percy babbles on and on about the fish and the bugs and the scavengers. He takes him to whale falls and shows him every intricate bit of the flourishing ecosystem. Nico holds sea cucumbers in his palms, and strokes the skin of a properly viewed blobfish, and watches with gentle awe as a blue whale swims above their heads. Percy’s eyes cast a glow that his skin faintly matches in the deep dark depths, but Nico’s born of shadows and darkness and can see just fine.
Percy gets it - the depths are not for everyone, his docked and land-side family included. They listen when he rambles, but up close and personal is pushing it the levels to which comfort is unavailable. But still.
Given the sudden interest for the color of dresses and vision, here some of the fascinating findings we did recently.
The color nuances we see depend on the number and distribution of cones (=color receptors) in our eye. You can check this rainbow: how many color nuances do you count?
You see less than 20 color nuances: you are a dichromats, like dogs, which means you have 2 types of cones only. You are likely to wear black, beige, and blue. 25% of the population is dichromat.
You see between 20 and 32 color nuances: you are a trichromat, you have 3 types of cones (in the purple/blue, green and red area). You enjoy
different colors as you can appreciate them. 50% of the population is
trichromat.
You see between 33 and 39 colors: you are a
tetrachromat, like bees, and have 4 types of cones (in the purple/blue,
green, red plus yellow area). You are irritated by yellow, so this color
will be nowhere to be found in your wardrobe. 25% of the population is
tetrachromat.
You see more than 39 color nuances: come on, you are
making up things! there are only 39 different colors in the test and
probably only 35 are properly translated by your computer screen anyway
:)
It is highly probable that people who have an additional 4th
cone do not get tricked by blue/black or white/gold dresses, no matter
the background light ;)
I see 21 colors. I had no idea there are so many more.
I see 35-39 colours, and I hate the colour yellow. That was actually what made me curious enough to stop scrolling and count. Who knew there was a scientific reason behind my colour preferences?
So the idea here is that what I see as annoyingly, garishly bright, most people don’t see as clearly, and that’s why it’s “cheerful?” (I’ve never understood that description of yellow.)
advice i think we should tell children is that when adults say stuff like ‘now that i’m an adult i get really excited about stuff like coffee tables and bathrooms and rugs etc’ they don’t mean ‘and now i don’t care about blorbo and squimbus from my childhood tv shows anymore’ bc your average adult still loves all the same pop culture stuff they always did; they just have a greater appreciation for the mundane as well. growing up just means you can enjoy life twice as much now. you can get really excited about a new stuffed animal AND about a new kitchen sponge. peace and love
I recently realized I’ve been doing this for like 15 years or something like that. Lol. And I’m not quittin’ any time soon. Is that a promise or a threat? 🤷♀️
next year james patterson is slapping his name on a book called “the secret lives of booksellers and librarians,” which is real bold considering that every bookseller and librarian that i’ve met in my time as a bookseller and librarian absolutely loathes him. including me.
“rowan if you hate james patterson how come you know about a book of his that’s coming out seven months from now?”
I Must Keep The Scope Of My Sniper Rifle Trained On The Beast At All Times
Okay, I feel the need to explain just why James Patterson is so hated by librarians.
See, it’s not just that he writes mediocre, churned-out thrillers; there are many, many authors of mediocre, churned-out thrillers out there, he ain’t special.
It’s also not that he “writes” them with “coauthors” and slaps his name on them - again, this is not unique.
It’s not even - though this is starting to get there- that he chases every publishing trend and creates His Version of everything from Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Nicholas Sparks, which nobody likes as well as they like his thrillers but still buy because they have His Name on them like a summoning charm.
No, what makes James Patterson uniquely loathed is the combination of the frequency of publication and his popularity. Because, to be honest, I’m not sure that anyone even likes his books anymore, but it doesn’t matter, because if they have the James Patterson name on them then readers will be queuing up like zombies desperate for a fix of decaying cerebral matter. Which would be tolerable if he had the decency to only write one book a year like most other bestselling authors, but “James Patterson” (quotes VERY intentional) puts out roughly two books per month. So as a librarian, not only do you have to buy every new book James Patterson puts out, you have to buy multiple copies in order to fulfill demand. Somewhere around 5% of my fiction budget is spent ENTIRELY ON JAMES PATTERSON. Every new James Patterson that comes out means a dozen or more queer romances, inventive sci-fi novellas, unique cultural viewpoints, etc, etc that you can’t buy because YOU HAVE TO BUY JAMES PATTERSON INSTEAD. (See also, you just weeded and shifted the Ps in fiction to make room and now it’s full again oh god why.)
And the clincher - the absolute clincher - is the knowledge that the publishers will be “finding” “unfinished manuscripts” by “James Patterson” for a minimum of fifty years after his death, so even if some right-minded bibliophile with a claymore takes one for the team, we will never, ever be free.
And that is why we hate James Patterson.
I was wondering about this when i saw the first version of this post
