Somehow, in the stream under a post about the start of sales of a new book, I came across a comment: “The book is only 300 pages long! What is there to read, why buy ?!” This phrase bothered me for a long time, and then the question arose: what is there to read? But why have books become so short? Literary critic Galina Yuzefovich recently wrote an article in which she spoke about the decrease in the volume of modern novels. Whatever the genre – but this is especially true for pseudo-intellectual prose. It is clear that the topic is somewhere in the information space.
So are we getting stupider?
As always, such radical conclusions are just a candy wrapper. Bright but meaningless in itself. The rhythm of the modern world has changed dramatically, the hearts of cities – even small ones – beat faster: we have changed our habits of consuming information in the flow of content. We need less, but richer. Check. More relevant. This applies to everything around you: from interviews to posts on social networks. Books are no exception.
This gives rise to a phenomenon called “fast fashion” in the English-speaking environment, or, if we return to books, “speed reading”. Some of this is not new. We have already accelerated in literature and, for example, in journalism. In the USA of the 20th century, cheap (and not always literary quality) books were printed for one reading, after which they could be safely thrown away. This was called “pulp fiction”, “pulp fiction”. Not to be confused with Tarantino’s film. There was also a “penny press” – cheap newspapers covering the most “scandalous” topics.
It is fundamentally wrong to think that “speed reading” is the beginning of mass dullness.
New habits lead to new forms of consumption. And “speed reading” has given rise to so many things that it is now difficult to imagine the book industry without it, both for those who work in it and for those who consume the product created. Let’s play Thomas Aquinas and try to identify “four proofs of the existence of books”, reassuring everyone around us (and ourselves as well) that our intelligence does not decrease with the volume of books. But we only need two proofs.
First. Yes, the real, page-by-page volume of modern prose is usually reduced to an average of 250-350 pages (although “bricks” of more than 700 pages look quite regular, take at least a couple of publications with a fantastic assumption: Ekaterina Zvontsova’s “White Pawns” became a TikTok trend precisely because of the volume “No Entrance to the Other World” by Ekaterina Lander.
But the text itself is dense. You know, the water takes up all the space available. It’s the same with literary text; the less space there is, the denser it is. This has less to do with the tendency to finish a book faster (although publishing rhythms have also changed) or to read faster, but rather with the thematic characteristics of modern prose.
These are, first of all, stories about feelings, sensations, psychological state of the characters – for this it is necessary to “squeeze” them with details and images.
Elena Popova’s “Eightieth Degree” (254 pages) is an artistically revised diary of a polar geologist, a small volume that allows the most intense transmission of the desired mood, vivid emotions and the atmosphere of the Arctic; Shamil Idiatullin’s “It’s Too Late to Be Afraid” (352 pp.) is a psychological novel in the guise of a hermetic detective with a time loop, the relatively small volume of which allows you to more skillfully hide important details necessary for the reader to unravel the central intrigue. It is also the density of the text that enhances the feeling of hopelessness of the main character, the time loop becomes even more “closed”.
The personal is almost always more local. We are now looking for books about ourselves because we are constantly in it. Small volumes allow this effect to be conveyed. Large ones turn even personal history into a global narrative about one’s place, one’s time, in history.
The second is final.
Thanks to “speed reading” we have new book formats that readers will fall in love with.
For example, large multimedia projects (texts, comics, offline events, events on social networks) such as the collection of stories “Tales of Joy, Tales of Sorrow” from the book service “Strings”. It was the rapid consumption of information that opened the way for such a multimedia project. Remember the audio series “Cognata” by Alexey Salnikov, “Vaginova’s Room” by Anton Seksov, “Wonderland” by Olga Ptitseva, “Kanashibari” by Angelina and Veronica Shen. This format differs from an audiobook in the usual sense: it is created for fast and, for example, enthusiastic consumption (both the text part and the sound design), but at the same time it does not get worse – such projects are not devoid of psychology of characters and social subtexts.
In addition, all the book blogs in different formats with bright designs and catchy phrases (this also applies to publishers’ social networks) are a result of the culture of speed reading that permeates everything around. After all, you need to hook the reader. That means we need to do better. Brighter.
When we are literally on the run, we enrich ourselves with meaning. And that doesn’t make us stupid. It just makes you different.
Note: You can always find a volume for slow reading: At least pick up Abraham Verghese’s recent “The Testament of Water” or Eduard Verkin’s “Snark-Snark” from last year.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.