No, not a professional baseball player.

OK, so how about Munsell—who’s that?

And are/were they real, or are they fantasy? (Why am I asking these odd questions?)

And how are Ishihara and Munsell related to regulations like the following?

2.1.01.05.002: All children are to attend school until the age of sixteen or until they have learned everything, whichever be the sooner.

“Learned everything”? Hmmm…

Bear with me now. First I need to tell you about Ishihara and Munsell.

Shinobu Ishihara (1879–1963) was definitely real. You may even have taken the well-known color blindness test named for him. (See first image.) In the book being reviewed here — the actual subject of this post — all citizens are required to take an Ishihara test during the week of their 19th birthday. Why is that important? Well…keep reading.

Albert Henry Munsell (1858–1918) was also definitely real. Perhaps best known for the Farnsworth–Munsell 100 Hue Color Vision Test, he gives us a different kind of test for color blindness, as shown in the second image.

OK, I’ve kept you in suspense long enough. The book I recently finished reading is Shades of Grey — no, that’s not the book you may be thinking of; it’s a dystopian novel, first in a new series by Jasper Fforde. It takes place in a future England, some hundreds of years in the future, in an unspecified location. It may be science fiction. Or it might be fantasy. Because of an (unspecified) Something That Happened, most modern technology is forbidden. Ability to perceive colors is a determiner of social class — not only the particular colors but also their vividness and clarity. At the top of the chain are the purples, i.e. those who can perceive purple, followed by the blues, the greens, and so forth. Totally colorblind people, who see no colors and everything looks gray, are at the bottom of society. Friendships between colors are discouraged. In any case, there is a maximum number of friends you can have. Virtually everything is low-tech, although slow trains and a very few cars are allowed.

Of course there has to be a love story involved, but it’s not quite what you imagine. You’ll have to read it to find out.

Clearly all this is a metaphor for something. (But for what?) Clearly it was inspired by Brave New World, 1984, and the works of Lewis Carroll. Despite being a dystopian novel, it’s very funny. Here is a brief excerpt:

Go read it. I have the second novel in the series on reserve in the library, and I’ll tell you about after it is published and I have to chance to read it.

Categories: Books