View source for The Colour out of the Shadow

{{Infobox short story|author=[[Harry Turtledove]]|release_date=January 2023|publisher=PS Publishing|image=Shadowsoutoftimecover.jpg|first appearance=Shadows Out of Time|editor=Darrell Schweitzer|ImageSize=150px|illustrator=Bob Eggleton|genre=[[Science fiction]]|series=[https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos Cthulhu Mythos]|preceded_by="[[The Hill of the Beast]]"|followed_by="Spheres"}}'''"The Colour out of the Shadow"''' is a short story by [[Harry Turtledove]], published in the anthology ''Shadows Out of Time'', edited by Darrell Schweitzer (PS Books, 2023). While [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s novella ''[https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/The_Shadow_Out_of_Time? The Shadow Out of Time]'' inspired the anthology, Schweitzer intended for the anthology to focus more on Lovecraft's belief that "[c]onflict with time [is] the most potent and fruitful theme in all human expression."<ref>https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/shadows-out-of-time-signed-hardcover-edited-by-darrell-schweitzer-5957-p.asp</ref><ref>https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Out-Time-Trade-Paperback/dp/1786368854/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1679126747&refinements=p_27%3ADarrell+Schweitzer&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Darrell+Schweitzer</ref> However, Turtledove's story does involve the [https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Race_of_Yith Great Race of Yith]. Further, it makes use of plot elements from Lovecraft's short story [https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/The_Colour_Out_of_Space "The Colour Out of Space"], specifically the "blasted heath" near [https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Arkham Arkham, Massachusetts], and the reservoir built upon it nearly a century ago.

{{Spoiler}}
A member of the Great Race of Yith named [[Pmurt]], having committed a number of crimes, has his consciousness sent 5 million years into the future into the body of a particularly distasteful [[human]]. Pmurt awakens in his new body, a married hotel magnate of some note. Relying on his memories of the writings of [https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Nathaniel_Wingate_Peaslee Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee], Pmurt adjusts himself to his new reality. On the day he first arrives, Pmurt and several aides go to Arkham, Massachusetts, as the hotel magnate had announced plans to build a new hotel using water from the [https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Arkham reservoir] built on the former [https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Nahum_Gardner Gardner farm]. While visiting the site, Pmurt is met by protesters. Their leader, [[Louise  Pierce]], a descendant of [https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Ammi_Pierce Ammi Pierce], pleads with Pmurt to abandon his hotel plans, insisting that the [https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Colour_Out_of_Space alien] that landed in 1893 is still in the ground under the reservoir. In a boisterous and defiant move, Pmurt dismisses Pierce's concerns, and make a point of publicly drinking water from the reservoir. However, the "colour" is indeed in the water, and interacts in an unusual manner with Pmurt's brain, causing him to have vivid and grandiose dreams. 

By spelling Pmurt's name backwards, readers will have deduced the identity of Pmurt's [[Donald Trump|host]] early in the story.  The closing lines remove any doubt, as Pmurt, under the influence of the alien colour, tells his "wife", [[Melania Trump|Melania]], that he's going to run for [[president of the United States]] and he's going to win. 

==Literary comment==
The exact time frame of the story is vague; given the satirical nature of the story, it's probably also beside the point. 

In reality, Donald Trump announced his first actual campaign in 2015; thus the logical inference is that the story is set in 2015. However, he was also a candidate for the Reform Party nomination in 2000. He also considered running for the GOP nomination in 2012. Pmurt notes that he has arrived almost one hundred years after Peaslee was sent back in time, which happened in 1908. This suggests the story is set somewhere between 2000 and 2008. Pmurt acknowledges Melania as is "wife".  Donald Trump married his third wife in 2005, though they'd been dating since the late 1990s. There is no reference to Barron Trump, who was born in 2006. Louise Pierce describes the Arkham Reservoir has having been built 80-90 years before the events of the story.  In "The Colour out of Space", building of the reservoir is about to begin in the late 1920s, which would place the action of "The Colour out of the Shadow" in the 2000s or 2010s. 

As most of the facts support that the story is set in the 2000s, this page has been categorized accordingly.  

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Cthulhu Mythos Stories}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colour out of the Shadow}}
[[Category:2023 Works]]
[[Category:Short Stories First Published in an Anthology]]
[[Category:Cthulhu Mythos Stories]]
[[Category:Works Set in the United States]]
[[Category:Works Set on Other Planets]]
[[Category:Works Set in Prehistory]]
[[Category:Works Set in the 2000s]]
[[Category:Time-Travel Stories]]