[“Colson Lin’s Chromatica” was originally written and published to x.com/colsonlin by Colson Lin on August 30, 2024.]

EXT. NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

KURT LODER. “MTV’s Kurt Loder here, and we’re here—sorry. We’re—oops, excuse me. We’re here in New Haven-Connecticut; and we’re about to meet Colson Lin as he works on his new single, ‘The Splendid Blond Beast,’ right upstairs—no, I don’t have any money. So come back.”

CUT TO:

EXT. OVERCAST SKY

A falcon darts across a white-gray sky.

CUT TO:

A fast-moving MONTAGE of historical images from the early 21st century; culminating in the rise of a philosopher who just wants to talk.

CUT TO:

A shot of COLSON LIN, gesturing animatedly.

COLSON LIN. “It’s like a total eclipsе! That’s what nihilism feels like. It doesn’t mean thе sun’s never coming back. It just means we’re… more on EDGE.”

CUT TO:

INT. MODERN LOFT LIVING ROOM

A man in his mid-30s, COLSON LIN, types on his iPad Pro.

KURT LODER (V.O.). “He’s the conceptual artist who says—concepts are converging in the 21st century. Colson Lin, a Chinese-American conceptual artist based in New Haven, Connecticut, claims we’ve learned a lot over the centuries about ‘who we are,’ ‘what we like,’ and ‘what we dislike’—and it’s time to ‘put our our money where our mouth is,’ so to speak. He sees ‘Final Judgment Day’ as a chance to get some real answers on the table about what it means to ‘exist,’ and more importantly—what it means to ‘exist as human.’ His name’s Colson Lin, and he claims he’s the ‘literal emergent fulfillment’ of Christ’s Second Coming prophecy—which predicted, of course, the reemergence of Christ as Judge. Colson Lin claims to be a conceptually-analogous figure. He argues that the various ways a reasonable intelligence—from human to AI to alien—can approach morality is conceptually limited, more narrowly so than postmodernity assumed; and that among the most stable ideals he’s encountered are, indeed, Christ’s ethical teachings. Is this just a quirk of Colson Lin’s psychology? Or is something larger at work? In a century that he says will be famous for widespread nihilism, can humans actually synthesize—syncretically, as it were—new illuminations about the much-ballyhooed ‘moral logic of the universe,’ a conceptual Holy Grail many don’t believe could exist at all; let alone consequentially? And what about the eclipse this year; not to mention the three earthquakes that Lin’s postings on X—one on New Year’s Day in Japan, one in New Haven, and one this summer in California—do appear to uncannily foreshadow? When we come back, we speak to Colson Lin, who’s about to release ‘The Splendid Blond Beast’—his sixth single from The Will to Power, a text-and-image-only musicless LP that some say heralds a future where poets can be as influential as pop stars; and others say is just a glorified book of poetry.”

CUT TO:

A shot of KURT LODER, frowning slightly.

KURT LODER. “So don’t go anywhere.”

CUT TO:

INT. ART STUDIO

KURT LODER (V.O.). “When he’s not writing, he’s here.”

COLSON LIN, standing in front of an easel, furiously splashes acrylic across a canvas.

KURT LODER (V.O.). “Getting his feelings out—as colors.”

COLSON LIN (hurling paint). “Red means MAD! Red means BLOOD is visible outside the BODY! Red in the morning, [grunt] sailor’s WARNING…”

CUT TO:

EXT. WOOSTER SQUARE PARK

COLSON LIN (contemplatively). “I think colors are really visceral. Even to the blind. Just the memory of their patterned association over the years. Of course it’s not universal—it’s the opposite. It’s achingly provincial. We don’t even know if your green is my green. It could all look inverted, and you’re so perfectly used to that. But isn’t sunlight grand after months of living inside nuclear haze?”

KURT LODER. “Take me back to Earth a little, Colson. What are you saying?”

COLSON LIN. “I’m saying I feel orange right now! ‘Powerless’ to convey to you the depth of my conviction, which isn’t that I know anything about God, but that the powerless can be unionized! That’s a convergence that was always conceptually undertapped in human intellectual history.”

CUT TO:

INT. MODERN LOFT LIVING ROOM

KURT LODER (coming in). “All right, Colson.”

COLSON LIN (standing). “Hey, nice to meet you!”

KURT LODER. “So this is your set up.”

COLSON LIN (points to iPad). “Yup, that’s my soundboard.”

KURT LODER. “So explain how this works, Colson.”

COLSON LIN shows KURT LODER a tab on his iPad Pro open to “Claude,” an AI system that COLSON uses to “simulate a human reading his work.”

COLSON LIN. “Okay. Well this box is where I type my ideas in. And then it uses all the project data that I’ve uploaded about myself and my work here, processes it, and then spits out soundscape descriptions.”

KURT LODER. “Sounds like something truly anyone can do.”

CUT TO: COLSON’s face, slightly humiliated, shrugs.

KURT LODER. “Colson, a lot of people want to know. You’re such a lyrical genius. How much of that, is thanks to this.”

KURT gestures at Claude, the AI system on COLSON’s iPad Pro.

COLSON LIN. “I write all my own songs, Kurt.”

KURT LODER. “Sure, that’s what the lore is. But what’s the real story?”

COLSON LIN. “Kurt, I’m writing the words in your mouth now and I write all my own shit.”

KURT LODER. “Except for the soundscape descriptions.”

COLSON LIN. “Bingo—and some magazine parodies, but in each case? I make it obvious.”

KURT LODER. “Right.”

COLSON LIN. “Since it sounds like AI, whereas my writing sounds uniquely like me and AI can’t touch my finesse.”

KURT LODER. “Right.”

COLSON LIN. “I really am the return of Christ, Kurt.”

KURT LODER (V.O.). “Anthropic, the company that owns the AI system Claude, is preparing a report on Colson Lin’s Second Coming claim—they claim, with no help from their own large language models whatsoever.”

COLSON LIN. “What, you gon’ try and pin my genius on AI when I’ve been a linguistic acrobat all my life? Is it MY fault that ‘AI who can write better than you’ emerged at the same time as a ‘genius who can also write better than you’? The humanities are dead, Kurt; and I touched none of it.”

KURT LODER. “Let’s talk about your songwriting process.”

COLSON LIN. “Let’s do it.”

KURT LODER. “What makes the work you do different from, say, someone like [Lana] Del Rey or [Bob] Dylan.”

COLSON LIN. “Nothing. Okay? Nothing. Except I can’t hear music. I can’t hear harmony in my head. I’m tone-deaf. Does that mean I can’t write music?”

KURT LODER. “You seem insecure about your position in pop culture.”

COLSON LIN. “I think people who are cool should feel more insecure, actually.”

KURT LODER. “Why’s that, Colson?”

COLSON LIN. “They’re getting replaced. Right? By people from the masses, like Colson Lin—by AI. It’s their own lack of gravitas comin’ to roost.”

KURT LODER. “Good ol’ apocalyptic Colson. Colson, you don’t really believe that First World modernity is going to collapse into a haze of war, outages, and conflict in our lifetimes, do you?”

COLSON LIN. “Well if it does.” [Prints out physical copies of all my song lyrics.] “Colson Lin is ready for it.”

KURT LODER. “Oh, huh.” [Smiles.] “I see you’re listening to ‘Buzzcut Season.’”

COLSON LIN. “Yeah, I love that song.”

KURT LODER. “Wouldn’t have pegged you as the type of person to be able to rise above subliminal feuds between your favorite pop stars.”

COLSON LIN. “I have some of my own, Kurt. I know The Call of the Wild.”

KURT LODER. “All right, quickly run me through it: how do the colors in your work work?”

COLSON LIN. “Orange is for powerless. Red is for anger. Blue is for sadness, depth, grace, forgiveness, God. Coke is red and white—plus a dominant company, Pepsi less so. Pink is red-orange.”

CUT TO:

INT. ART STUDIO

A wide-angle shot of COLSON LIN splotching paints onto a canvas.

KURT LODER (V.O.). “Colson Lin’s philosophy, as expressed through color symbolism, offers a vivid framework for understanding human historical processes. Here’s a direct explanation of this philosophy through four key hues. ‘Orange’ represents a state of potential energy inside a social sphere. It’s carried, Colson says, by those who exist outside dominant power structures, those who feel the weight of oppression or lack of agency, and those who aren’t reasonably happy with existence as is. This state isn’t merely passive, Colson says—it’s intellectually and emotionally contagious. In human experience, orange can manifest as the anxiety of a child dreading school on Monday, the despair of the imprisoned and other marginalized communities, or the simmering discontent that precedes social unrest. It’s a state of aversion to one’s present circumstances. ‘Red’ symbolizes domination, or the drive for order through control, fear, and punishment. Red is the force that seeks to prevent or correct ‘perceived disorder’ by inflicting consequences on those deemed responsible for chaos; or even ‘possibly responsible.’ Red is the color of bloodthirst, anger, and revolution—it represents the passionate, often impulsive forces that dominate reality with insular perceptions of goodness, correctness, or purported stability. In human behavior, red can manifest in various forms—from the desire for personal revenge to large-scale revolutionary movements. It’s the force behind punitive justice systems, authoritarian regimes, and the ‘eye for an eye’ mentality. It also resonates with Nietzsche’s concept of ‘ressentiment’—the redirected envies and hatreds that emanate from humility. ‘Blue’ represents the harmonic and graceful instinct observable in both animal and human nature alike, and even chance events that register to some as ‘divine providence.’ It symbolizes forgiveness, hopeful cooperation, and the desire for peaceful coexistence. Blue is the color of clear skies and calm waters, reflecting a state of tranquility and understanding. Blue seeks resolution through stability rather than escalation. In practice, the blue instinct manifests in acts of forgiveness, reasonable conversations, and social movements that emphasize non-violent resistance. Blue aligns with philosophical concepts such as ‘ubuntu’ in Bantu teachings as well as the ethical frameworks advanced by figures from Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. Finally, ‘pink’ represents the complex state where red instincts merge with orange feelings of powerlessness. It’s a softer, more conflicted hue than pure red or orange—it’s the color of internal struggle; of righteous anger tempered by practical considerations. ‘Pink,’ Colson warns, often leads to subtler forms of resistance or other psychoemotional conflicts.”

CUT TO:

INT. MODERN LOFT LIVING ROOM

KURT LODER. “So the century feels?”

COLSON LIN. “Pink!”

KURT LODER. “Ah.”

COLSON LIN. “But also red and orange.”

KURT LODER (leaning in). “So where’s the hope, Colson?”

COLSON LIN. “There is no hope—it’s all pink, red, and orange for the rest of time, and the world is just going to be swallowed by the fiery hues of humanity’s most catastrophic sunset: God. Is. Dead. The end.”

KURT LODER waits.

KURT LODER. “Are you joking right now?”

COLSON LIN. “Kurt, of course I am. I’m the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!”

KURT LODER (V.O.). “When we come back, Colson Lin shows us how he can contribute to culture without knowing how to write music.”