Blue

Derek Jarman’s Blue weaves a sensory tapestry that serves as both a political call to action and a meditation on illness, dying, and love. “For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions.” —Derek Jarman Originally released as a feature film in 1993, the year before the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s death due to an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a daring and powerful work of art. The film - and this highly-anticipated book’s text - serve as iconoclastic responses to the lack of political engagement with the AIDS crisis. Written poetically and surrealistically, Jarman’s text moves through myriad scenes, some banal, others fantastical. Stories of quotidian life––getting coffee, reading the newspaper, and walking down the sidewalk––escalate to visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue fighting yellow. Facing death and a cascade of pills, Jarman presents his illness in delirium and metaphors. He contemplates the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose as he grounds this story in the constant return to Blue - a color, a feeling, a funk. Michael Charlesworth’s compelling introduction brings Blue into conversation with Jarman’s visual paintings as never before.

Derek Jarman’s Blue weaves a sensory tapestry that serves as both a political call to action and a meditation on illness, dying, and love. “For Blue there are no boundaries or solutions.” —Derek Jarman Originally released as a feature film in 1993, the year before the acclaimed artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s death due to an AIDS-related illness, Blue is a daring and powerful work of art. The film - and this highly-anticipated book’s text - serve as iconoclastic responses to the lack of political engagement with the AIDS crisis. Written poetically and surrealistically, Jarman’s text moves through myriad scenes, some banal, others fantastical. Stories of quotidian life––getting coffee, reading the newspaper, and walking down the sidewalk––escalate to visions of Marco Polo, the Taj Mahal, or blue fighting yellow. Facing death and a cascade of pills, Jarman presents his illness in delirium and metaphors. He contemplates the physicality of emotions in lyrical prose as he grounds this story in the constant return to Blue - a color, a feeling, a funk. Michael Charlesworth’s compelling introduction brings Blue into conversation with Jarman’s visual paintings as never before.

I'm twenty-one years old and I don't know how to stop loving him. That's the problem. Because Cassian was never meant to be loved like this. He was the boy next door. The one who climbed through my window in the middle of the night. The one I gave everything to-without ever asking for anything back. And he took it. All of it. Piece by piece, year by year, until there was nothing left of me that wasn't his. We grew up tangled together- in grief, in silence, in things we never said out loud. In a love that didn't feel like love anymore, but something darker. Something that held on tighter the more it hurt. I knew he would ruin me. I let him anyway. Because some people don't just break your heart- they become a part of you. And even after everything... even after the damage, the distance, the years of trying to survive what we were, I would still open the window. Every single time. Blue is a dark, angsty MM romance about obsession, grief, trauma, and a love that doesn't let go. This is not a soft story. This is not a safe love. This is what happens when you love someone who hurts you again and again and can't stop anyway. Childhood friends to something darker >Toxic, codependent relationship >Emotional damage that lingers >Dual timeline (childhood → adulthood) HEA... but you will suffer for it >

I'm twenty-one years old and I don't know how to stop loving him. That's the problem. Because Cassian was never meant to be loved like this. He was the boy next door. The one who climbed through my window in the middle of the night. The one I gave everything to-without ever asking for anything back. And he took it. All of it. Piece by piece, year by year, until there was nothing left of me that wasn't his. We grew up tangled together- in grief, in silence, in things we never said out loud. In a love that didn't feel like love anymore, but something darker. Something that held on tighter the more it hurt. I knew he would ruin me. I let him anyway. Because some people don't just break your heart- they become a part of you. And even after everything... even after the damage, the distance, the years of trying to survive what we were, I would still open the window. Every single time. Blue is a dark, angsty MM romance about obsession, grief, trauma, and a love that doesn't let go. This is not a soft story. This is not a safe love. This is what happens when you love someone who hurts you again and again and can't stop anyway. Childhood friends to something darker >Toxic, codependent relationship >Emotional damage that lingers >Dual timeline (childhood ? adulthood) HEA... but you will suffer for it >

A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color blue throughout the ages Blue has had a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now cite it as their favorite color. In this fascinating history, the renowned medievalist Michel Pastoureau traces the changing meanings of blue from its rare appearance in prehistoric art to its international ubiquity today. Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Pastoureau investigates how the ever-changing role of blue in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, heraldry, clothing, paintings, and popular culture. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color became a powerful element in church decoration and symbolism. Blue gained new favor as a royal color in the twelfth century and became a formidable political and military force during the French Revolution. As blue triumphed in the modern era, new shades were created and blue became the color of romance and the blues. Finally, Pastoureau follows blue into contemporary times, when military clothing gave way to the everyday uniform of blue jeans and blue became the universal and unifying color of the Earth as seen from space. Beautifully illustrated, Blue tells the intriguing story of our favorite color and the cultures that have hated it, loved it, and made it essential to some of our greatest works of art.

A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color blue throughout the ages Blue has had a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now cite it as their favorite color. In this fascinating history, the renowned medievalist Michel Pastoureau traces the changing meanings of blue from its rare appearance in prehistoric art to its international ubiquity today. Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Pastoureau investigates how the ever-changing role of blue in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, heraldry, clothing, paintings, and popular culture. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color became a powerful element in church decoration and symbolism. Blue gained new favor as a royal color in the twelfth century and became a formidable political and military force during the French Revolution. As blue triumphed in the modern era, new shades were created and blue became the color of romance and the blues. Finally, Pastoureau follows blue into contemporary times, when military clothing gave way to the everyday uniform of blue jeans and blue became the universal and unifying color of the Earth as seen from space. Beautifully illustrated, Blue tells the intriguing story of our favorite color and the cultures that have hated it, loved it, and made it essential to some of our greatest works of art.