Travel on the roller coaster ride of the human mind. Each section in Black, Blue, Purple, Pale, captures the emotional intensity of the state of mind that each color represents. Starting with the darkly rumbling inner-pain personified in "Black," girls with "Lithium and Laced Leggings" and "Creatures of the Night" will "Divide by Zero" and "Break the Framework of Society and Self." The darkness melts into "Blue," where confusion and chaos reign in the world of "The Castlebuilder" and "Quantum Subshells." Things begin to recalibrate themselves in "Purple," as the speaker discovers a "Sensuous and Soporific" love that inevitably brews "A Fire Inside." Finally, "Pale" represents the speaker's catharsis and emotional maturity. But not completely white, "Pale" leaves the speaker painfully cognizant of the scars and mistakes of the past. A beautiful and modern anthology, Black, Blue, Purple, Pale celebrates the great spectrum of emotions--sorrow, confusion, passion, and acceptance-- that characterize personal growth.

Synesthesia is a fascinating phenomenon which has captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. This inherited condition gives rise to a kind of 'merging of the senses', and so for those who experience it, everyday activities like reading or listening to music trigger extraordinary impressions of colours, tastes, smells, shapes and other sensations. Synesthesia research also informs us about normal sensation because all people experience cross-sensory mappings to an implicit degree. Synesthesia has a considerably broad appeal, and in recent decades the field has experienced a resurgence of interest. These advances have painted a detailed story about the development, genetics, psychology, history, aesthetics and neuroscience of synesthesia, and provide a contemporary source of study for a new generation of scholars. The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia brings together this broad body of knowledge into one definitive state-of-the-art handbook. It includes a large number of concisely written chapters, under broader headings, which tackle questions about the origins of synesthesia, its neurological basis, its links with language and numbers, attention and perception, and with 'normal' sensory and linguistic processing. It asks questions about synesthesia's role in language evolution, and presents both contemporary and historical overviews of the field. It shows synaesthesia's costs and benefits (e.g., in creativity, memory, imagery) and describes how synaesthesia can provide inspiration for artists and designers. The book ends with a series of perspectives on synesthesia, including a first-hand account, and philosophical viewpoints which show how synaesthesia poses unique questions about sensation, consciousness and the nature of reality.