The Red/Black=evil thing is true. Could it just be the influence of Nazis on the popular imagination? I’m trying to think of red/black combos from before WW2.
Germany’s flag in WWI was black, red and white. I kind of doubt they saw themselves as evil.
One think I hated about V for Vendetta was how obvious the fascism looked. If you want to oppress a country changing the flag so it consists of alien and sinister red on black is, like, a dead giveaway.
I wasn’t disagreeing with you, just preempting any suggestion that the Red/black= evil phenomena was especially universal or ancient. I think the Nazi explanation is a good one.
That said, red and black do seem to be the color most associated with hell and the underworld.
The Norsefire flag in V for Vendetta is pretty obviously a Nazi’d up version of the St. George Cross.
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
-Sinclair Lewis
The Red/Black=evil thing is true. Could it just be the influence of Nazis on the popular imagination? I’m trying to think of red/black combos from before WW2.
Germany’s flag in WWI was black, red and white. I kind of doubt they saw themselves as evil.
One think I hated about V for Vendetta was how obvious the fascism looked. If you want to oppress a country changing the flag so it consists of alien and sinister red on black is, like, a dead giveaway.
Edit: Related video
Well, nobody sees themselves as evil. I’m suggesting that the red/black combo might be associated with evil after WW2 because the Nazis were so evil.
The Norsefire flag in V for Vendetta is pretty obviously a Nazi’d up version of the St. George Cross.
I wasn’t disagreeing with you, just preempting any suggestion that the Red/black= evil phenomena was especially universal or ancient. I think the Nazi explanation is a good one.
That said, red and black do seem to be the color most associated with hell and the underworld.
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” -Sinclair Lewis
The only example from antiquity that I can think of is Heironymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/GardenED.jpg
The colour is faded, but hell is definitely red/black.
Incidentally, red/black/gold not only looks evil, it looks rich and evil.
Well red and black are pretty much the colors you would expect to see in an underground pit full of fire.
I would expect brown and orange and yellow too. Maybe blue, depending on what was on fire.