A song from the philosophy roleplaying musical Fermat's Last Stand. Read more at http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/08/17/...
LYRICS:
MARY:
When I was born
They say the old court astrologer said
The king would die
When first I grasped the color red
So the king cast a curse on my soul and my sight
Let his sorcery bleed all my colors away
Now my world is restricted to black and to white
And a thousand and one shades of miserable grey
I need revenge!
To understand red
So the curse will be broken
And everything change!
And that is why I sit alone
And read my tattered physics books
And optics also I consume
I sometimes feel if I just squint
I almost can make out a tint
Amidst the greys of Mary's Room
MARKAS:
I am agog
I'm seething mad
To hear the evils of your dad
I can't believe he'd stoop so low
You can't give up
You can't despair
We'll get you out of here, I swear
We'll find a way to let you go
MARY:
No I'm sorry for whining; please leave me alone
The night is still young, there's more time for studying yet
What my eyes cannot see, still my reason may teach
Leave me now to my reading, I beseech
The colors of the world, lie just beyond my reach
Red! Light of wavelength eight thousand angstroms!
Black! Inactivity in the visual cortex!
Red! Activation of erythrolabe protein!
Black! Ambient light of under one lux!
MARKAS:
My lady, before I met you, all my world seemed so grey
But now it seems filled, with rainbows of beautiful hue
Oh, my lady, I'll save you, we must run away
Oh Mary, can't you see, I'm in love with you
The colors of the world
Shine brightly for us two
Red! I feel my soul on fire!
Black! My world if you're not there!
Red! The color of desire!
Black! The color of despair!
MARY:
Your emotional states are not wavelengths of light
Though I know you mean well, what you say has no meaning to me
I must stick to my books, and continue the fight
To break the curse, so that my people can be free
The colors of the world, must someday yield to me!
Red! Light of wavelength eight thousand angstroms!
Black! Inactivity in the visual cortex!
Red! Activation of erythrolabe protein!
Black! Ambient light of under one lux!