Beauty

Back to the start I guess. You see something beautiful but you lack the skills to imitate it.

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Finishing The King in Yellow: The Prophets' Paradise

The final story in Chamber's collection that has any connection to the King in Yellow. This story is made up of very short parts or chapters listed as: The Studio, The Phantom, The Sacrifice, Destiny, The Throng, The Jester, The Green Room, and The Love Test. I see a pattern of each story in Chamber's story of the themes around the King wanning away with each entry. This collection has the bare bones of what could be considered a reference.  For example, The Green Room mentions a character with a powdered face. This could be similar to a pale mask. But the analogies are so thin here that it's difficult to draw connections. 
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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...
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Decadence Movement and Yellow

Many of The King in Yellow's themes tie to the Decadence Movement. The movement, spawned in France with the (argued) unintended influence of Edgar Allen Poe, can be summarized as art for art's sake. Why have a purpose? Why have a meaning? Literature, paintings, all forms were expressed for the sake of expression. Yet, there were themes that tied the works, such as the color yellow. Many art pieces featured golden colors and many aspects of the movement were catelogued and promoted in The Yellow Book. The movement can also be seen as a rejection of the previous generation's sense of morality. But in rejecting the previous standards and adopting a yellow icon, the movement became a symbol of its own. Ironically, a movement about not having a meaning, had a meaning. In a satirical sense we can see that in trying to reject the system, a system is made and that kind of horrifying satire is carried over to The King in Yellow.  It's like Robert Chambers is exposing what happen...
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