Sky in a Bottle

Ever since Plato, at least, the color of the sky has puzzled children, adults and philosophers alike. Why is it blue and not white, like the clouds, or gray, or violet? In this colorless study, Pesic, tutor and musician-in-residence at St. John's College in Santa Fe, N.Mex., catalogues ancient and modern attempts by artists as well as scientists to answer this question Aristotle, for example, concluded that the fading of daylight gives the evening sky its deep shade of blue. Later scientists and philosophers developed theories of refraction and reflection, wavelength and particles. Newton argued that the sky's color derives from the fact that blue's characteristic wavelength is longer than that of other colors. Pesic also records the efforts of artists and writers to capture the blue color of the sky in their paintings and writings. Kandinsky, for instance, exalted blue as a spiritual color: "the deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man toward the infinite...." Pesic's sometimes entertaining study fails to answer the eternal question, "Why is the sky blue?" It's more of a catalogue (a little repetitious, too) than an artful exploration, but it offers a workmanlike survey of attempts to answer it. (Dec.)