Serial production of cultural goods

We like to the Éditions de l’Escapée the freedom of tone, the technical posture and the reference authors: Guy Debord, Albert Camus, Günther Anders, Jacques Ellul, Simone Weil or the Karl Marx of philosophers. We are therefore not disappointed when we read in one go the last book by Bertrand Cochard, specialist in Debord, who mobilizes this rich galaxy to tackle the phenomenon of series, and aligns an uncompromising argument that is both daring and original. Daring, because there is a question of unbolving a cultural practice today well installed ; Original, because, in the line of critical theory, the author relies on normative assumptions assumed in order to denounce, not the low quality, but the “ consumption mode “Series,” which is of the order of the flow “Exhausting the spectator by the” permanent renewed of promises (…) never held (P. 49).

Three normative benchmarks

We can count three strong affirmations at the heart of the criticism that Cochard formulates about the series. The first is to denounce the illusory indifference in which they place us. Consume a series, says the author, produces a “ tunnel effect “(P. 56) capable of abolishing the concept of time, now sunk in a” flow (P. 56) continuous. Completely taken in the activity of being spectators, individuals are detached from historical temporality, that is where political effects are taken, for the benefit of a “ pseudo-cyclicity “(P. 85) in which everything seems to continue – there will always be another episode to watch – even though our living conditions are gradually ransacked, and new goods come to shape our daily life without democratic control. Is therefore confirmed a “ Asynchronicity of social times (…) where part of society (…) evolves, progresses, makes history (P. 84) While the rest claims to ignore it while undergoing it.

At the start of his remarks, Cochard resumed his opposition to Debord in the meantime (repetitive) and linear (historical) time, also explored in the book Guy Debord and philosophy. He then radicalized his analysis by arguing that the pseudo-cyclicity, already present in the daily life of the Thirty Glorious Years, recently deteriorated into a simultaneity of insignificant non-events (buzz, scandal, cultural exit immediately exalted immediately forgotten, etc.). The routine time of the pre-numeric society was certainly without political effect ; However, one could project ourselves through the consistency of the change between work and leisure. Las ! Even the horizon of a well -conducted career and well -deserved rest has faded in our postmodern societies, giving way to an infinite suite of uninterrupted projects and uninterrupted production, because the connected humans never stop providing data. So that the series becomes a real “ hobby (P. 100), in the most literal sense of the term, that is to say that it makes us pass from one time sequence to the other where the separation of moments no longer exists. She re-agency re-aging so as to simulate “ consistency and (…) the unity of which our fragmentary lives are devoid of (P. 105).

While overall the author focuses on the “ series-to-series “(P. 13), the third conclusion of the more reckless test, comments on its content and establishes that the series acclaim a latent anthropology: the individual would be essentially determined by the story he holds on himself. In most of the intrigues deployed, the characters can indeed become “ improved versions of themselves “(P. 112) As long as they change narrative to their words, also an ideology at the root of” personal development (P. 112). Membership of this postulate in the spectator generates the need to surround himself with a multiplication of stories which are all potential new ways to relate to oneself, and the series can easily constitute such a decor. “” Nothing more than himself interests (daily man), especially in what he could be Said Albert Camus, quoted by the author (p. 113).

Against such a “ narrarchy “(P. 121), which postulates the authority of the story to the detriment of the real causes and the unpredictability of the action (Hannah Arendt), Cochard supports-against a heavy trend, let us admit it-that we must give up producing myths. Then may experience the impromptu experience, not seized in any drama already played, from which will arise the “ involuntary suspension of our credulity (P. 121), a suspension specific to all philosophy.

Qualities of a short treaty

On the author’s credit, let us first mention a wide range of examples from the series themselves. We will particularly appreciate criticism, from an episode of The good place, of the monadic individual who believes he can be good without considering the change of social structures (p. 114-115). Then quote the panoply of recent publications summoned beyond canonical references, so that we quickly know who Cochard holds (Gérard Wacjman, Jonathan Crary, Hartmut Rosa) and to whom he opposes (Sandra Laugier, Dominique Moïsi, Tristan Garcia), without sectarianism, since he knows how to nuance the positions of each other.

Finally, let us raise the refreshing use of literary references to give body to the arguments advanced, a method which breaks with the authority of sociology in this field and which makes it possible to formulate proposals of common sense in a debate saturated by the exaltation of pop culture and the creativity of fanbase : “ The series holds a privileged place in dependence on screens (P. 10), digital is an ecological scandal, and the supposed political content of the cultural industry has so far reduced time to sleep. What to remember David Brooks’ observation: the creative class, which he famously baptized the “ sore And whose series continues to illustrate ethical convictions, had to carry an era of respect, conscience and alternative, but will not, once established in institutions, that “ resentment, alienation and continuous political dysfunction ».

An absence of specificity

If we leave the first praise and printing, which is gratitude, it should be noted, however, that we can understand, in the analysis of Cochard, the specificity of the series compared to other content distributed on digital platforms. The criticism of time spent chaining episodes from the notion of “ abstract work “(P. 75) at Marx, who makes both sense of” time “(P. 75) Extracting from the user and disgust felt when he considers he devoted too much time to a series that was not worth it, is particularly fruitful. It reveals indeed the discrepancy that exists, on the one hand, between what the spectator believes to do (entertain) and what he really does (produce data), and on the other hand, between “ Chronometric capital »(P. 72) invested and the real satisfaction proven.

Let us recall, however, that the situation where a “ behavioral surplus »(Zuboff) Big Tech for hours to finally have the feeling that we have been stolen from our time, or that we have lied to its valuematerializes just as well in the player of a Mmorpg : Hundreds of hours of games are needed to reach an accessible stadium by paying 20 euros to the parent company. In reality, the contradiction appears as soon as leisure requires indecent quantities of hours to obtain a result reachable in a few seconds in little costs, whether it is the knowledge of a outcome or the last level for its hero. And it is resolved in the light of pleasure experienced in the use and the degree of technicality obtained thanks to regularity. We talk better about Lost If we looked at it, and we are more skillful to World of Warcraft after 1 hour of play. Says more simply: all the platforms that distribute cultural content aim for the tunnel effect, and the series, of which are in fact “ finite », Are probably not the worst of them.

The argument also applies with regard to the issue of decision, developed at the end of the book. No one will deny that the series relieves the burden of having to choose in an abundance society where everyone is constantly referred to themselves. At least during the long time when she parades in front of us, the series “ delivers us from this unbearable weight of individual sovereignty (P. 132).

However, this applies again beyond the platforms Svod (Netflix, Disney+, TF1+ and others). The applications that encourage us to play sports by offering us virtual trophies if we manage to run x kilometers on the week, the practices of “ Quantified Self Who promise to increase our performance based on permanent tracing from our state of health or the mechanics of cultural products recommendations (videos on YouTube, music on Spotify, photos on Instagram) constantly save us to have to rule on what happens to us (activity, food, aesthetic experience). All marketing around the Apple Watch essentially consists in presenting it as a provider of stimulation which “ Help You Reach Your Move, Exercise, and Stand Goals Every Day Without you having to provide this eternal effort of intimate deliberation. Clearly, it’s digital, not the series, which is a machine to decide.

Revise the hermeneutic potential of the series

Clearly in his pedagogy, creative in his argument and relevant in his criticism, Cochard’s essay fishing so only by making the series “ the noun marrow of what we are going through “(P. 10.), where she might benefit from being approached as a response to” Choice paradox “(Schwartz) in the precise field of entertainment, or yet another avatar of” solutionism “(Morozov), this time applied to the problem of” contemporary vacuum (P. 125), so well described in Empty on demand. The author himself oscillates, during the text, between a criticism of the series and that, wider, of the “ technological device (P. 132) In which we are all integrated. Perhaps Cochard, despite himself, reproduces what he denounces, however, in Moids, in turn considering that “ Understanding the world of television series is understanding the world at all times (P. 47), although on the infrastructure scale. With the exception of this too much faith in the hermeneutic potential of its object, the test is default.