Weekend reading

In France, homeland of l'exception française, where cultural diversity was built into the country's very system and people's souls, only 900 authors can claim an income of more than 16,500 euros a year from all of their titles. (Martine Prosper, Édition, l'envers du décor (Paris, 2009))

This weekend's leisure reading was the author of The business of books : how international conglomerates took over publishing and changed the way we read (London: Verso, 2000) André Schiffrin's Words and money (Argent et les mots) (London: Verso, 2010).

Unfolded by a more-than-ten-page introduction that closely links words and money, the topics of the book, and asks alternative possibilities for the traditional publishing media, Schiffrin observes that "[s]urely no capitalist in his or her right mind would invest in a bookstore these days, or in a publishing house, on in a newspaper."

The book is divided into seven chapters. They are: 1. The future of publishing; 2. The Norwegian example; 3. Films and movie houses; 4. Helping the bookstores; 5. The future of the press; 6. Saving the press. It closes by the conclusion: technology and monopoly.

Words and money is definitely worth reading for the up-to-date tough situation of the publishing and press industries in the major western countries such as America, Britain, France, and Germany. The recommendation for the government is intervention by favourable aid at all levels, financially and legally, to save from small independent bookstores to major newspapers against large globalized conglomerates. At the individual level, I think, do not enter the industries.

Some excerpts from the book:

The current economic crisis revealed that the really big money wasn't coming from the mundane activity of making actual, tangible goods and then selling them. (p. xiv) tipping point for alternative means of production and wealth accumulation

None of these changes [practical changes due to the ethos of profit maximization across a wide range of professions] were due to the internal demands of these professions. Indeed, they are contrary to the needs of the practitioners and their clients. But they are part of the inevitable monetization of modern capitalist society, which allowed for no exceptions and was ravenous in its demands....Even though their system collapsed, many of its proponents have continued to defend it and have returned to their former practices and their obscene remuneration. (p. 5) what else and where else can they do and go?

In Japan, overall sales of newspapers are 624 papers per thousand persons, two and a half times greater than the US figure (p. 67) unbelievable.

There is a strong French tradition of self-censorship where the government is concerned. (p. 70) really?

News coverage, both in France and in the US, is solidly white. (p. 71-2) how true?

The book also introduces to me Florence Noiville's J'ai fait HEC et je m'en excuse (I Went to Business School and I'm Sorry) (Paris, 2009) in which she shows how the major thrust of the curriculum at France's leading business school is not to show how business or the economy works, but to teach its students how to maximize profit, partly by firing as many people as possible. (p. 7-8)