World traveller
The first example quoted is the size of women’s dresses: ‘Estimates by The Economist suggest that the average British size 14 pair of women’s trousers is now more than four inches wider at the waist than it was in the 1970s. In other words, today’s size 14 is really what used to be labelled a size 18; a size 10 is really a size 14.’ The reason for this is obvious: marketers have decided that women feel happier buying dresses in smaller sizes. I have heard this before but I still don’t get it. They do have mirrors at home, don’t they?
Another example is super-sizing: what used to be small, medium and large, is now regular, large and very-large, which may soon give way large, very-large and humongous. (Hold your breath; it is going to happen – in some form – sooner than you think.) Then there is the ‘deluxe and luxury’ that used to be ‘standard and deluxe’; and one would no longer need to endure the ignonimity of the ‘economy class’ because some airlines are already calling it the ‘World Traveller’ class.
Six times cleverer
Then, there is the scary bit; grade inflation. The story says, ‘In
Britain the proportion of A-level students given “A” grades has
risen from 9% to 27% over the past 25 years. Yet other tests find
that children are no cleverer than they were. A study by Durham
University concluded that an A grade today is the equivalent of a C
in the 1980s. In American universities almost 45% of graduates now
get the top grade, compared with 15% in 1960.’I have always wondered about that during the ‘PMR (School Leaving Certificate) exam result season’. During my time in the 60s, the best a top student could score was 8 ‘As’. Now, we have a handful of students scoring 20 ‘A’ all over the country. If these results are a fair reflection of today’s generation, the top student now is two and half times cleverer than those in the sixties, and since there are two and a half times as many in the top bracket, and the entire younger generation is more than six times cleverer than the old. Scary, right? But, walking around Bangsar, I wonder where they all are. Facebooking? Building nuclear powered rockets in their backyard? Attending Bersih rallies? Maybe, they’re all living abroad. (Utusan story for picture on the left: Seramai 4,117 atau 7.69 peratus pelajar di negeri ini berjaya memperoleh semua A -- 4117 students score As in in all subjects in the PMR exams in Johor.)
Literary super-sizing
Naturally, this brings me back to the book world. I read another story in The Daily Beast, ‘Are Books Becoming Too Long to Read?’ Says Marc Wortman, ‘We read books by the word. But lately publishers seem to sell them by the pound. For a book to win recognition as BIG these days, it must be weighty.’
So, is there a case for literary supersizing?
Certainly, we have had customers who value books by the kilo (perhaps keeping future resale value to the paper-lama man in mind). ‘Aiyoh, why the book so expensive, one. So few pages only, what?’ That's not an uncommon reaction. Parent’s balk the most when buying books for their children. “Before we go home, she already finish reading in the car, lor.” So they make their children read the same book fifteen times, and then they fight.
Incarnation
Still, I don’t get Marc Wortman’s beef. Are big books only a modern phenomenon? War and Peace comes to mind, and so does Crime and Punishment; and Gone with the Wind. And A Suitable Boy. Methinks Mr Wortman has forgotten (though I agree with his view of the Steve Jobs book by Isaacson which could have easily been halved: what a waste of paper).
In the seventies, I don’t recall Catch 22 by Joseph Heller being a small book, nor Alex Haley’s Roots. The eighties had John Fowles and John Irving who both didn’t write too many small books. In the seventies and eighties, big books were ‘in’ if one wanted to look erudite, or impress chicks. So, nothing much has changed. I now balk at big books for a different reason: not enough time left in this incarnation, lor.
New way to impress friends
If there was supersizing in the book world (note the past tense) it was in the mega store business. Whatever the chains may say, blaming the e-book for their woes, the collapse of the mega bookstore was due to poor business plans: too many large bookshops (sometimes on the same street), renting very expensive real estate, and undercutting one another on prices, particularly of best sellers (where the meat is).
Big books will always be around; but with the advent of the e-reader, they may no longer be necessary to impress friends.
