The Yellow Sign
I've made a breakthrough. You've likely heard of the Yellow Sign, a common trope in the King in Yellow and Lovecraft universe. Artists have designated it as a symbol. Specifically, it looks like an askew question mark with extra appendages. But the phrase is wrong. It's not Yellow sign but Yellow signs. The King is described as a figure in a pallid mask and tattered yellow robes but Yellow and White make their presence throughout the stories. Case in point, the current story I'm reading, The Street of the Four Winds describes a cat with yellow eyes that licks a marble bowl clean. The yellow eyes are an obvious nod but the marble bowl is white. White like a mask.
If we go back further into the story The Prophet's Paradise, we see a clown that marvels at his own pale mask. He then turns to death and who asks who has a paler mask than death.
Again, we see the symbolism of white and pale. The King's presence us there. I think that the sign is not a central concept but a layered metaphor.
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