Nestled between cafés and tour shops on the busy Rue Saint-Honoré, the Librairie Delamain, the oldest bookstore in Paris, strikes an inconspicuous pose. Outside, tourists jostle their way through the stands and shelves on their way from the Louvre to the Comédie Fran?aise across the street, rarely pausing to glance under the gray-and-white awning.
The tempo inside the bookstore is slower, as patrons—almost all French—vie for browsing space among the cramped shelves. The president of the Constitutional Council, Jean-Louis Debré, is a regular visitor; so is Comédie-Fran?aise actor Denis Podalydès. Over the years, Michel Foucault, Colette, and Jean Cocteau have all passed through its doors.
But Librairie Delamain may now be coming to a close. This month, the Librairie Delamain's lease is up for renewal by the Qatari company Constellation Hotel Holdings, which owns the block-wide property that also houses the soon-to-be-renovated H?tel du Louvre. The company plans to double the bookstore's rent to 100,000 euros per year—nearly a tenth of their annual revenue. With already slim margins, the shop would be forced to shut down or abandon the storefront where it has been since 1906 (the business itself dates to 1700).
This tale is a familiar one to bibliophiles around the world, as the frail arsenals of independent bookstores surrender to the triple threat of Amazon, e-books, and competition from other media. Here in France, though, the story diverges from the script. Barely had the threat to Delamain been announced when author and journalist Angelo Rinaldi pledged to do all he could to prevent the bookstore's closing. "It's always when grandmother is sick that you realize how much you loved her," he told LeFigaro last week. Rinaldi plans to spread the word among his colleagues at the Académie Fran?aise when it reconvenes on September 25.
Rinaldi was joined by the Minister of Culture herself, Fleur Pellerin, who visited the bookstore in person to assure the staff of her full support. The president of the Centre National du Livre, Vincent Monadé, demanded a meeting with Constellation Hotel Holdings. Several days later, the H?tel du Louvre, feeling the pressure, released a statement saying that the Qatari holding company would take into consideration "the specific activity of its renter as well as the many years in which it has occupied the site."
"I hope, now, that this is going to be translated into action," said Monadé to LeFigaro.
It's difficult to imagine the shuttering of a bookstore causing a similar outcry anywhere else—not to mention direct government involvement in the matter of a private lease. This has something to do with what the French call l'exception culturelle. It doesn't just mean cultural exceptionalism; the phrase refers more precisely to the notion that cultural goods should not be subject to the whims of the free market—and should be protected from the homogenizing onslaught of global, and in particular American, cultural imperialism.
In the U.S., such a policy would smack of protectionism. The French prefer to justify it in terms of maintaining "cultural diversity." L'exception culturelle is the source of production quotas for radio programs made in France. It's the reason the initial arrival of Netflix executives in France was met with a letter from producers bemoaning the "implosion of our cultural model." And in a more general sense, it is part of a conviction in France—albeit one increasingly debated—that cultural heritage is a good with its own internal logic and value system, one that the government has the duty not only to protect but to actively promote. France even entombs its most celebrated literary and cultural figures, among other "great men" (and now women), in the Panthéon in Paris.
In the publishing sphere, l'exception culturellemorphs from a committed ideal into concrete policy. It has allowed the French to mount a challenge to the digital revolution in a way that would be unimaginable in the U.S.
As an independent bookstore, the Librairie Delamain already receives a partial merchandising subsidy—5,000 euros in 2013—from the Centre National du Livre.In 2013, the Ministry of Culture announced a further injection of 5 million euros into the independent bookstore industry, as well as the creation of a new bureaucratic position (the stereotypical solution to all French problems)—the "book arbitrator"—who could, in cases like this one, intervene in legal disputes without forcing the small businesses to involve themselves in expensive litigation. Booksellers like Delamain are also aided by theloi Lang,a 1981 law named after a former minister of culture, which limits discounts on books to 5 percent of their cover price. Earlier this summer, a so-called "anti-Amazon" amendment extended this limit to online booksellers and prohibits them from offering free shipping on reduced-price books.
In fact, France is far from the only country to require a fixed book price. Germany, Norway, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea all do as well. The U.K. used to require fixed book prices, but no longer does. Today, one can easily see the result: While independent booksellers make up 45 percent of the market in France, they are only 4 percent of the total in the U.K. In 2013, 23 percent of all trade books purchased in the U.S. were e-books (it's 25 percent in the U.K.) – in France the number was a fraction of that, at 3 percent. |
巴黎德拉曼書店(Librairie Delamain)是巴黎最古老的書店,它坐落在繁華的圣奧諾雷街(Rue Saint-Honoré),藏于咖啡館和旅游商店之間,是那樣的不起眼。店外,游客熙熙攘攘,他們穿過(guò)沿路的小攤、貨架,從盧浮宮前往法蘭西劇院(Comédie Fran?aise),卻鮮有人駐足片刻,留意到這片灰白色雨篷下的天地。
店內(nèi)的節(jié)奏比店外要慢幾拍,顧客們(幾乎都是法國(guó)人)在局促的書架間爭(zhēng)奪著閱覽空間。法國(guó)憲法委員會(huì)主席讓-路易·德勃雷(Jean-Louis Debré)時(shí)常光顧于此。法蘭西劇院演員德尼·波達(dá)利德斯(Denis Podalydès)亦是常客。這些年間,米歇爾·福柯(Michel Foucault)[1]、柯萊特(Colette)[2]、讓·谷克多(Jean Cocteau)[3]都曾踏入這家書店的大門。
但是,德拉曼書店如今可能面臨關(guān)門。本月,書店與卡塔爾公司星座酒店集團(tuán)的租約到期。這家公司擁有本街區(qū)的全部物業(yè),包括翻修在即的盧浮宮酒店。公司打算將書店的租金翻番,漲到每年10萬(wàn)歐元,這幾乎等于書店年收入的一成。本就盈利甚微,書店也許只能被迫關(guān)閉或放棄臨街的店面。書店自1906年便在這此經(jīng)營(yíng)(其業(yè)務(wù)則可追溯到1700年)。
脆弱的獨(dú)立書店屈服于來(lái)自亞馬遜、電子書和其他媒體的三重競(jìng)爭(zhēng)壓力,這樣的故事對(duì)于世界上的愛書之人并不陌生。而在法國(guó),故事的套路卻有所不同。作家兼記者安吉羅·里納爾迪(Angelo Rinaldi)承諾盡全力不讓書店倒閉,因此德拉曼書店幾乎未受到影響。他上周對(duì)《費(fèi)加羅報(bào)》(Le Figaro)說(shuō)道:“總要到祖母生病時(shí)你才意識(shí)到你有多愛她。”里納爾迪計(jì)劃于9月25日法蘭西文學(xué)院(Académie Fran?aise)復(fù)會(huì)時(shí)在他的同事中宣傳此事。
法國(guó)文化部長(zhǎng)福樂(lè)爾·佩勒林(Fleur Pellerin)也加入到里納爾迪的隊(duì)伍中來(lái)。她親自訪問(wèn)了德拉曼書店,并向店員保證她將全力支持他們。法國(guó)國(guó)家圖書出版中心主任文森特·莫那德(Vincent Monadé)也要求與星座酒店集團(tuán)面談此事。幾天后,迫于壓力,盧浮宮酒店發(fā)表聲明,稱卡塔爾控股公司將會(huì)考慮“租客(德拉曼書店)活動(dòng)的特殊性,以及它已在此經(jīng)營(yíng)多年的事實(shí)”。
莫那德對(duì)《費(fèi)加羅報(bào)》說(shuō):“現(xiàn)在,我希望他們付諸行動(dòng)。”
由一家書店的關(guān)張引發(fā)強(qiáng)烈抗議,這在其他國(guó)家是不可思議的事情,更別提政府直接介入私人租約事務(wù)了。這與法國(guó)人所謂的“文化例外”有關(guān)。此提法不單指文化例外主義,更確切地講,它的涵義是:文化商品不應(yīng)成為自由市場(chǎng)一時(shí)頭腦發(fā)熱的犧牲品,而應(yīng)受到保護(hù),使之免遭全球(尤其是美國(guó))文化帝國(guó)主義的同質(zhì)化屠戮。
在美國(guó),這樣的政策頗有保護(hù)主義之嫌。法國(guó)人則更喜歡為其正名,稱之為保護(hù)“文化多樣性”。“文化例外”是法國(guó)電臺(tái)節(jié)目必不可少的素材。這也解釋了為什么網(wǎng)飛公司(Netflix)總裁初訪法國(guó)時(shí),迎接他的是來(lái)自制片人的一封悲嘆“文化模式崩潰”的信。更廣義上講,這是法國(guó)信念的一部分(雖說(shuō)它已引發(fā)越來(lái)越多的爭(zhēng)議)。在這種信念里,文化遺產(chǎn)是具有自身內(nèi)在邏輯和價(jià)值體系的商品,政府不僅有責(zé)任保護(hù)文化,更應(yīng)該積極弘揚(yáng)文化。法國(guó)甚至將本國(guó)最負(fù)盛名的文學(xué)和文化名人安葬于“偉人”安息之所—巴黎先賢祠(Panthéon)。
在出版界,“文化例外”從理想承諾轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)榍袑?shí)政策,讓法國(guó)人向數(shù)字革命提出挑戰(zhàn),而這在美國(guó)是無(wú)法想象的事。
作為獨(dú)立書店,德拉曼書店得到了來(lái)自法國(guó)國(guó)家圖書出版中心的部分商品補(bǔ)貼(2013年補(bǔ)貼金額為5000歐元)。2013年,法國(guó)文化部長(zhǎng)宣布再向獨(dú)立書店行業(yè)注資500萬(wàn)歐元,并新設(shè)官方職位(這是解決所有法國(guó)問(wèn)題的老套路)——“圖書仲裁人”,在諸如此類案件中介入法律爭(zhēng)端,使小書店免于陷入昂貴的訴訟。德拉曼書店這樣的書商還受到《朗法》(loi Lang)的支持,該法律以法國(guó)前文化部長(zhǎng)杰克·朗的名字命名,于1981年頒布。《朗法》規(guī)定,圖書折扣不得超過(guò)其標(biāo)價(jià)的5%。今年初夏,所謂的“反亞馬遜”修正法案將這一限定延伸到網(wǎng)絡(luò)書店,并禁止其對(duì)減價(jià)書籍包郵。
事實(shí)上,法國(guó)絕不是唯一要求實(shí)行固定圖書價(jià)格[4]的國(guó)家。德國(guó)、挪威、日本、墨西哥和韓國(guó)也是這樣做的。英國(guó)也曾有過(guò)固定圖書價(jià)格的規(guī)定,但現(xiàn)已不再執(zhí)行。如今,后果一目了然:法國(guó)的獨(dú)立書店占到市場(chǎng)的45%,而英國(guó)的這一比例則僅有4%。2013年,美國(guó)售出的普通版圖書中23%是電子書(英國(guó)為25%),而法國(guó)的這一比例極低,僅為3%。
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