Just a little rant (on my little blog) about subtitles. This is no rigorously controlled scientific study, but have you noticed in recent years the growth of subtitles? Especially on non-fiction books and movies? The title is usually 1-4 words; the subtitle 5-10, or in Dick Morris's case, 20+. Examples?
"Fleeced:How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About It";
"Catastrophe: How Obama, Congress, and The Special Interests Are Transforming...A SLump Into a Crash, Freedom Into Socialism, and a Disaster Into a Catastrophe...And How To Fight Back";
"Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto";
"Outliers: The Story of Success";
"Godless: The Church of Liberalism";
"Guilty: Liberal Victims and their Assault on America";
all of these are recent or current non-fiction best sellers.
On the movie side, we currently have: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"; and "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" amongst many others.
I don't have a comprehensive list of how it was 20 years ago, but "Rocky II" seemed sufficiently descriptive at the time. A quick look through the Pulitzer winners reveals an upward trend in subtitles, though it was utilized a great deal 20 years ago, too. Again, this is just a little rant, but it just seems that everything marketed to us for entertainment consumption has a formulaic title and subtitle format.
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