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Re:In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business by scotty79 on Friday February 01, 2019 @11:54AM (#19055808)
Does culture need to be market driven?
Re:In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business by stcredzero on Friday February 01, 2019 @12:55PM (#19056503)
Historically, markets for media powered by mass media and technology tended to squash diversity from the Industrial Revolution up through the late 20th century. Now, networks and markets have produced a flowering of diversity, but often with lower profit potential, though individuals are often empowered to be in business for themselves, and a few still manage superstar status.

Markets tend to do both harm and good to culture, much as trade, migration, and wars have done both harm and good. Culture will always be market driven. However, there is definitely a place for culture outside of ordinary commerce.

Re:In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business by tim333 on Friday February 01, 2019 @01:48PM (#19057159)
I'm a bit skeptical of technology in general squashing diversity. Pre the printing press you could pretty much just get the bible hand written. With the early press far more then as you didn't need type setters more again. In general it seem better tech -> lower costs -> more diverse.
Re:In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business by stcredzero on Saturday February 02, 2019 @12:42PM (#19064364)
I'm a bit skeptical of technology in general squashing diversity.

My understanding is that the advent of the 78 record managed to popularize the Sligo style of Irish fiddling all over the world and across Ireland. Unfortunately, it caused a lot of local fiddlers to just hang their fiddle up, resulting in a tremendous die-off of regional styles. I'm also given to understand that every holler in the mountains of West Virginia had their own style of banjo. There was once a central Pennsylvania fiddle style. All of these have largely died out. (Imagine you meet a cosplayer from 200 years in the future, and their conception of "American" is a simplified homogenized mix of all 19th and 20th century American culture of all regions. This is the degree of squashing of diversity I'm talking about.)

Pre the printing press you could pretty much just get the bible hand written. With the early press far more then as you didn't need type setters more again.

Sure, if you only have that one data point, that's what you'd think. There's a lot more to it. Prior to widespread literacy, there was a tremendous amount of oral tradition and storytelling. Back in those days, if you wanted media, the family or community had to produce it, itself. (In America in the 1800s, it used to be the norm for at least one member of every family to be capable of performing at a level that would get one paid today.) Why would you think all of those would have been written down? In fact, people who study these things know much was lost. We only have a smattering of what once was.

In general it seem better tech -> lower costs -> more diverse.

The tech we had in the Industrial Revolution up through the late 20th century wasn't as interactive and capable of gathering data, and so wasn't as good at serving the long tail. So there was a bias towards only a few things that were mass produced, and unless you did a lot of legwork, that's what you got. As technology progressed, you had easier discovery/access, more customization, and more choices. In 2019, everything is preserved, everything is available if you just casually search for it. The world wasn't always that way.

Re:In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business by chrisseaton on Friday February 01, 2019 @11:58AM (#19055844)
It seems like a good thing to let the market make books as cheap as possible so that more people can access them.
Re:In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business by C4stor on Friday February 01, 2019 @12:02PM (#19055895)
But even with fixed prices, books _are_ cheap. Pocket editions here are the price of a cigarettes pack, something a lot of people even not rich afford once or more a week. I don't think affordability is a problem.
Re:In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business by samspot on Friday February 01, 2019 @12:17PM (#19056075)
I'm sure how it compares, but here it's $5 USD for a book you'll finish in 15-30 minutes. I find that to be _very_ expensive and I have a great job. So expensive that I've given up on buying and I always go to the library or use a subscription service.
Re:In France, Comic Books Are Serious Business by gmueckl on Friday February 01, 2019 @12:53PM (#19056492)
I think that a free market would actually lead to steeply rising prices. It's a seller's market, especially for the popular titles. Occasionally you might see some price wars from publishers pushing others out of the market, but between those, the average book price is not going to go down.