Color Blind

In Short

This science fiction story follows a space-going mechanic and his pilot friend as they search for a young woman who has vanished into the clutches of a wealthy, obsessed socialite. Set on a Venus where beauty is a commodity sold to the elite, the narrative explores the high cost of vanity and the moral compromises made in the name of youth. It has remained a compelling read because it blends the pulp-era aesthetics of interplanetary travel with a cynical, timeless meditation on human insecurity and the predatory nature of the beauty industry.

The Story

The story begins at a spaceport, where Chuck Morris, an engineer, introduces his friend, Harry Thurbley, to Sukey Jones, a young woman working at a hash house. Sukey, who possesses a delicate, olive-skinned beauty, harbors a deep, secret inferiority complex because she lacks the fashionable greenish-white complexion desired by Earth’s elite. When she loses her job after a confrontation with a haughty, pale-skinned socialite named Althea Campbell, she vanishes. Chuck and Harry discover that Sukey has been hired as a maid by Mrs. Campbell—a woman of vast wealth and failing health who is obsessed with restoring her lost youth.

When Mrs. Campbell abruptly leaves for Venus, a frantic Harry convinces Chuck to follow. On Venus, they navigate a world of colonial outposts and native mysteries, eventually tracking the pair to a forbidden region near the equator. They learn that Mrs. Campbell has engaged a local outlaw named Marjud to secure her access to a “sacred rainbow garden.” These regions are characterized by strange, diffraction-prone sunlight and warped, nightmarish vegetation.

Chuck and Harry infiltrate a primitive temple and rescue a terrified Sukey, who has been imprisoned for refusing to participate in the dangerous rituals of the garden. As they prepare to leave, they hear the plaintive cries of Mrs. Campbell from within the shifting, colorful mists. Despite Chuck’s warnings, Harry insists on entering the garden himself. As he steps into the haze, he reveals his true motivations to Chuck, mocking his friend’s earlier belief in his altruism. He admits that he has been courting the wealthy widow for weeks, not out of noble concern for Sukey, but for access to her eighteen-million-dollar fortune.

The ending is a haunting, surreal tableau. Harry disappears into the garden, where he is met by Althea Campbell. The radiation of the mists has granted her the youthful, pearl-white limbs and pale skin she craved, but the horror of the encounter is compounded by the final revelation of her anatomy: she has been transformed into a creature of many arms, clutching Harry in a grotesque, supernatural embrace.

How It Unfolds

The search begins After Sukey is spirited away to Venus, Harry and Chuck secure a transfer to the Venus run to find her. They arrive at Medea and discover that the socialite has been frequenting quack beauty establishments before disappearing into the forbidden equatorial zones.

Into the dhol caves The duo tracks down Marjud, an outlawed native priest, and learns he has sold Mrs. Campbell access to a sacred site. A tense confrontation with a guard leaves them with a lead on the location of a temple hidden within a column of radiant, swirling mist.

The temple rescue Chuck and Harry storm the temple, battling native priests to reach the inner chambers. Chuck finds Sukey locked away, and she reveals the socialite's descent into a desperate, fanatical search for rejuvenation.

The final betrayal The men reunite with Sukey, only for Harry to reveal his true colors when he encounters the transformed Mrs. Campbell in the mists. The story concludes with Harry's cynical abandonment of his friends to claim a monstrous fortune.

The People

Sukey Jones is the story’s tragic anchor, a young woman whose natural beauty is obscured by her own belief that she is inferior. She is loyal and vulnerable, viewing Harry as her protector, though she remains largely unaware of his true, mercenary character until the final moments.

Harry Thurbley presents as the ideal of a square, humble space pilot, but he is fundamentally a cold opportunist. He wants wealth, and he uses the guise of a protective, romantic gentleman to manipulate both Chuck and the wealthy Mrs. Campbell.

Althea Campbell is a sad, grotesque figure driven by the vanity of a fading socialite. Her desire to return to her youthful form leads her to ignore danger and exploit others, ultimately sacrificing her humanity to the bizarre forces of the rainbow garden.

Chuck Morris acts as the narrative’s weary, observant center. He wants only to help his friends, but he is consistently outmaneuvered by Harry’s calculated deceptions. He serves as the audience’s link to the reality of Venus, understanding the planetary dangers that Harry chooses to ignore.

In Its Own Voice

"For that elusive green-white glamour, go to Venus, the ads urged vain women."

The narrator sets the scene for a culture obsessed with the artificial, health-defying standards of beauty sold to wealthy travelers.

"I had been hanging around the Surface Transit offices, broke and alone, and got her the job as counter girl in the Company hash house on the edge of the space-port."

Chuck explains the modest, lonely circumstances of his first meeting with Sukey, establishing his role as a well-meaning but ultimately ineffective protector.

"He was still smiling, but it was a secret smile."

As Harry walks toward his fate, the narrator emphasizes the final, chilling realization that his friend’s altruism was merely a performance.

What It's Really About

At its core, the story is a critique of the commodification of self-image. It explores how the obsession with aesthetic perfection—specifically the desire for a "pale, greenish-white" complexion—acts as a form of social enslavement. The rainbow garden serves as a powerful metaphor for the high cost of vanity; it offers a literal transformation of the body, but only at the expense of one's humanity and soul. The book asks whether the drive to be "beautiful" is merely a distraction from the reality of decay, and it suggests that those who prey on this insecurity, like the priest Marjud, are just as monstrous as the transformations they promise.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy the brisk, hard-boiled pacing of 1950s pulp science fiction will find this a fascinating artifact of the era. It captures a specific mid-century anxiety about space travel, fashion, and the emergence of a celebrity-driven culture where status is literally skin-deep. The reading experience is visceral, shifting quickly from the grit of spaceport life to the eerie, dreamlike atmosphere of the Venusian equatorial zones.

However, modern readers should be prepared for the period-specific attitudes embedded in the text. The book reflects the gender dynamics of the 1950s, particularly in its portrayals of women as either objects of beauty or subjects of pity. The prose is utilitarian and straightforward, moving with the rapid-fire efficiency of a short story, though it occasionally lapses into the casual, tough-guy slang common to the genre. If you are interested in how early science fiction writers used the "frontier" to examine domestic human flaws—like greed and vanity—rather than just technology, this story will stay with you. It is a cynical, sharp-edged piece of work that refuses to provide a happy ending, choosing instead to leave the reader with a haunting image of greed finally meeting its bizarre, inevitable reward.