The Last Samurai

Ludo is captivated by articles in the Scientific American, but his thoughts keep drifting to Sorabji. He admires Sorabji’s ability to make complex topics engaging. Ludo realizes that what he needs is “not a hero to worship but money” to achieve his goals (344). The next day, he recalls a story about a painter named Watkins who couldn’t capture a specific blue color. The painter ventures into the ocean with a bathysphere operator. After seeing the pure blue of the water, the painter decides that “he [can] not paint blue” (347), and he seeks other ways to see pure colors. The painter obtains a large volume of blood from a slaughterhouse, covers himself with the blood, and lies down on “one piece of paper” (348). He argues that the blood made red “easier to see” (349). He sells the pieces and becomes rich and famous.

Ludo embarks on a quest to find the artist, Watkins. He enters a decaying warehouse rumored to be his studio. In one room, he encounters a man chipping paint off the wall, who eventually reveals his journey to the north of Canada in search of a specific shade of white and his plans involving “lamb’s blood for an art project” (353).