The scene illustrates the scarcity granted to authors for a very long time. In his work Foucault in California (Zones, 144 pages, 16 euros), Simeon Wade reports that the philosopher Michel Foucault explained, in 1975, having sent his manuscript ofHistory of madness to five Parisian publishers before finding one who published it (in 1961). “And again, we only accepted it because a friend of mine defended it before the Plon reading committee, who published it without bothering to read it. All other publishers have declared it to be an aberrant, incomprehensible, wordy and unsaleable book. I only received a few thousand francs in copyright. The contract was not exactly fair. ” Little has changed.
In January 2020, Bruno Racine’s report entitled “The author and the act of creation”, given to the Minister of Culture, Franck Riester, deplored that the artist-authors, whose economic and social conditions are deteriorating, are in “A blind spot” public policies. His suggestions, hailed by the creators, went unheeded for over a year. In the same vein, the report by deputies Pascal Bois (LRM) and Constance Le Grip (LR) on the status of authors also underlined, in July 2020, the growing impoverishment of the latter and the imbalance of their relations with producers, publishers or broadcasters. In December 2020, a third report, signed by Pierre Sirinelli, professor of private law at Paris-I, on the other hand, suggested the abandonment of the order contract – a proposal by Bruno Racine – in favor of collective agreement negotiations. .
Finally, the current Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, took up, in mid-March, only a small part of the Racine report, omitting a flagship recommendation: the creation of a professional statute, which had to be followed. through the organization of professional elections. Bruno Racine clarified at World : “The opening of negotiations announced by the Minister of Culture sector by sector under the aegis of the State must be welcomed if it enables significant progress to be rapidly obtained for the benefit of artists and authors, but the question of definition of what a professional artist-author is and of its representation will have to find, sooner or later, a lasting solution. “ Polite way of emphasizing that the file is only partially processed.
Misunderstanding
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