Wednesday, July 17, 2019

The Problems of Color and Choice



by Janis Patterson

Where have all the colors gone? We're rapidly entering a sad and monochromatic world.

Maybe I had better back up and tell you what is behind this melancholy rant. You see, I have a pink bathroom. An ALL-pink bathroom, and as things will when they grow old our toilet (pink, to match the sink, the bathtub and the wall tiles) broke. Well, what can you do but buy a new one?

Except that no one makes pink (or any real color) toilets any more. We went to big box DIY stores, specialty plumbing houses, commercial plumbing suppliers, even contacted manufacturers. Most of them didn't laugh at us, but it made no difference - there is no such thing as a commercially available pink toilet. We were told by a manufacturer that we could order a specially made pink toilet - at a price that was a little better than tearing out the bathroom to the studs and starting over... but not by much.

What makes me angry is that there is so little choice. At all the outlets we found at least three shades of white, between four and seven variations of beige (called 'Biscuit') and a rather creepy solid, shiny black. And nothing else.

So we chose white. It looks really weird in our pink bathroom, but I hope to ameliorate the effect by painting flowers to match our shower curtain on the tank. Desperate measures, I know, but the whole situation is as depressing as when colored toilet tissue disappeared. When we heard on the news about this obscenity, my dad went out to at least six stores and bought every package of pink toilet tissue they had. His daughter liked pink, so she should have pink! Of course, as that was many decades in the past the supply ran out long ago, but alternating with white softened the impact of having no choice except white. (Biscuit - no way; black - ick!) I still resent the freedom of choice being taken from me.

In other areas of our lives freedom of choice is being slowly but definitely eroded. Look at cars; the vast majority are white/silver and black. Every so often there is a red and less often than that a blue - in new cars; customer-painted aftermarket is a different thing. It's boring, but thankfully in cars - at least for now - you can buy your way into individuality - sort of. The Husband's car is a 2011; mine is a 2013. His is brilliant red, mine a pale liquid blue. We had to pay $500 each (a small percentage of the total cost and would probably be more now) to get something that was not black, white or silver but at least we had the choice - however costly - of getting a color.

So what does this have to do with mystery writing? Ten-fifteen years ago when the big publishers controlled what was published, one by one lines tightened (or disappeared) and the choices of type of book decreased accordingly. This holds true for all genres, too - mystery, romance, science fiction, women's fiction, whatever.

Then the self-publishing revolution began and suddenly writers could write what they wanted to write and readers could read what they wanted to read, all without the oversight (or interference) of the New York publishing types. Now this does mean there is a ginormous amount of absolute rubbish being published almost daily, but it also guarantees that every reader can find the precise sub-set of book they want to read. It puts the freedom of choice back into the hands of the writers and the readers, proving that there is hope for the survival if not resurrection of personal choice.

Unfortunately for those of us who have colored bathrooms or hate white/silver/black cars, I doubt that there will ever be a situation where people can design/color their own bathroom fittings or choose whatever color of car they want to order... but that's by no means a guarantee. Twenty-five years ago who would have even imagined the scope and reach of self-publishing? Who knows what's going to happen regarding the available colors of bathroom furnishings or new car colors?

Whatever it is, it will probably be far too late for me to have my pink toilet, drat it!

7 comments:

Maris said...

Yes, we have choice with self-publishing, but even that is limited. I can only choose from a limited list of genres and categories. I have to select from a limited number of tags. I understand why there are limits. It's too expensive for factories to produce just the one pink toilet you desire, and not worth it for car salesmen to have a wide variety of colors on the lot if black, silver, or white are the ones that sell. So how long will it be before Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the other on-line distributors decide to limit what is published and shown on-line based on what sells the best? (Or are we already there?)

Kevin R. Tipple said...

When I replaced the two toilets here two years ago, I was offered the choices of red, black, pink, purple and white as well as some differences in the depth of the color. I just went with plain old white.

Pamela S Thibodeaux said...

Interesting post, Janis!

I haven't shopped for plumbing items and don't plan to LOL!

Good luck and God's blessings
PamT

Sheri Cobb South said...

Colored toilet paper was done away with because the dyes in it caused urinary tract infections. I never heard of anyone getting a UTI from sitting on a colored toilet! Kohl used to make all kinds of vividly-colored fixtures. Sad to know they don't anymore.

Jacqueline Seewald said...

I'm all in favor of variety. But the bathrooms in our apartment are white and fine as they are. As to writing, there is much diversity and I'm all for that as well.

Rebecca York said...

Well, 45 years ago when we were looking for a bigger house, I wanted to live in a particular townhouse development. I looked at several of the same model, a four bedroom end unit. I rejected one because the bathroom fixtures were all pink. Sorry. I kept looking, and the unit we got is at the other end of the court. It had two bathrooms with yellow fixtures and one with beige. I've since remodeled two bathrooms and replaced the fixtures with white. I like having neutral bathroom tile and fixtures so I can change the look just by changing the towels. The powder room in the front hall still has a yellow toilet, but I long ago found wallpaper that would work w/ it. And I took out the yellow sink and put in a counter w/ a beige sink that works with the toilet. My sister still has a green toilet in her powder room. (house purchased around the same era when we bought ours.) I really do have several sets of towels that I rotate as my mood dictates.

Morgan Mandel said...

Try looking for drapes and you'll see they're all the same colors and patterns! I still have light yellow for my old fridge and stove, but I'll probably have to go with stainless steel when they give up the ghost.