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!
