THE COLOR OF HUNGER

A history lesson of the future.

THE COLOR OF HUNGER

EKS KORMAN

"Good morning. I am your host, Sun Ray. Welcome to today's history lesson transmitted over Long-Wave radio from the cruise ship, Sea Change.

Today, I'd like to tell you why we have a day to celebrate color. It is not only about the parades, the candy and ice cream, and the flags.
There is a short period in our history during which we were only so-called human.
At that time we lived in a tunnel of darkness.

Despite this inconvenience, colors could change when mixing; and an entire landscape, including humans, could become something new somewhere else:

Mixing black with red would become brown like excrement wherever seen, but mixing it with blue would become the color of bruised skin, because of the blood underneath; with yellow black would become as green as the grass of that time, and finally when mixing black with white it would become as grey as our skies, sometimes shedding tears, and occasionally holding a silver lining.

At some point, these mammals (as they started to call themselves) hungry for ultra human experiences decided to circle the globe in new guises.
They were greedy for the unclean, the painful, the fertile, the exciting, and the sad. Hungering after both good and bad, what humanity they still had ebbed.

To fill the gap between life and death (or to shorten it?) machinery without moving parts, which utilised something called The Web, smudged every boundary and hastened to answer every question.

Within a short time the machinery itself became known as human.

How did that come about?
One of their own sold them the color white, insisting it was light. Marketed, it claimed to brighten, sharpen and purify both body and brain.
And just as they being so-called human, their machinery too was all a sham, a superficial diversion, a trompe-l'oeil. People's eyes were never able to rest in complete darkness, and clients were denied refunds for their purchase of the color white.

Frustration ensued and chaos ruled; but this flickering darkness could not suppress hunger (though the authorities reported to have tried).

For a time, the dark side satisfied itself by suppressing differences.
But hunger, being the only sentiment people trusted, narrowly saved that civilisation from extinction.

In discussion with those who know more about that period than I do I have been told that in the instant the purchase of white was denied a refund for not being light, hunger was gratefully accepted, being the only sentiment remaining to assure humanity.

This example of hunger being offered in mercy illustrates to me how bad replaced good for a while.
But don't go away. History tells more.

Another common practice of the humans of that time was to encourage completely siding with bad so to gain desired, if not desirable, results.

Accepting false accusations to deliver a shorter prison sentence for example.

Yet, possibly the strangest feature of these people is that they couldn't agree on a definition for "human".
Kindness, self-respect and selflessness weren't priority; and inadmissable, since pets alone excelled at these.
Finally, the only thing everyone could come together on, beginning with those collecting payments on bills, was rare were those who could financially afford to stand up for themselves.

Fortunately, as history reports, it was not the color white, but light, which stepped in to brighten.
Bright ideas, bright thoughts and bright faces came forward; and then, the expression "Thanks be to God", hidden and banned for so long, was restored.
Yeah, that's how it was.

We hope you enjoyed this month's talk, "The Color Of Hunger", from the cruise ship, Sea Change, where we aim to learn from our past.

Thank you for listening.

How timely. I see a rainbow on the horizon.
Happy Color Day to you all!

Come back next month to learn how the word, "individuality", narrowly escaped being removed from the dictionary.

Hold tight till then.
You've been listening to Sun Ray from the cruise ship, Sea Change, Goodbye."

THE END

Reviews

[veewrites]

This sentence sounds a little awkward "Good morning. I am your host, Sun Ray. Welcome to today's history lesson transmitted over Long-Wave radio from the cruise ship, Sea Change." maybe shorten it to "Good morning. I am your host, Sun Ray. Welcome to today's history lesson from the cruise ship, Sea Change." I don't think you need to show how it is transmitted.

Try shortening the fourth paragraph by getting rid of the more transition-y words. For example, "Mixing black with red would become brown like excrement wherever seen, but mixing it with blue would become the color of bruised skin, because of the blood underneath" can become "Mixing black with red would become brown like excrement, but with blue, it would become the color of bruised skin with blood hidden underneath"

Those are just some nitpicky things, but overall great job. I'm curious, are you an artist because the ay you talk about color reads as an artist wrote it.

[EKS]

My internet connection died when I sent my comment, so this may be a repetition. I wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions. Actually, I struggled over the fourth paragraph. Maintaining rhythym is important to me here. I'll see what I can do.
Long-Wave was included to tell the reader that this though the monologue is set in the future, Long-Wave radio still exists, which is incredible. See the link below on Long-Wave radio.
https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/longwave-broadcasting-retains-listeners

[EKS]

Oh. and there is an artist in my life.