Friday, October 13, 2017

The Wage of the Channel-Hopper (table of contents)

One of the least known book by Serge Daney, The Wage of the Channel-Hopper is the only one entirely dedicated to television programs. Daney watched the six channels available on French TV at the time and wrote almost daily about what he saw. It was first published by Ramsay in 1988 and reprinted by P.O.L. in 1993. 

The translation of the title is by Nicole Brenez: "Serge Daney's collection of writings on television, Le Salaire du Zappeur was a pun on the title of HG Clouzot's 1953 film, Le Salaire de la peur, which in English was translated as The Wages of Fear. A better translation, then, would involve the word Wages, rather than salary. The Wages of a Channel-Hopper?"

Here's Daney's foreword:

The texts in this book were published between September and December 1987 in the newspaper Libération for a daily column entitled "The wage of the channel-hopper". Most of these texts are reprinted here. The titles are the original ones but the subtitles have been re-written. As for the texts, they have been reproduced with only minor amendments and no real modification. 

And, since all things must end, the text Back to the Future has been written exclusively for this book. 


Table of contents

Back to school

Thus spoke Channel 5

The smash of rage

The channel-hopper is inside the TV

Lajoinie's socks

Uncle Serge's beautiful stories

The Polac effect

M6, the channel that washes whiter than white

Puppet, or half-puppet

Dubbing, original version

Television in the fishbowl

Saint Zelig, pray for us

Spotlight on the image

Stage door

The end of the last word

Before the news

The misfortunes of an ideal son-in-law

In Cine-hit, cinema is number one

There are series, and then there are series

Literature, at the service of politics

The bull by the horns

From the star to the celebrity

Mondino, the hip champion

Bonne nuit les petits

Rather, straight out of bed

Sex and its laughter

TV and its shadow

From the large to the small screen

The look hits rock bottom

Commercials miss the point

Touring the TV canteens

Schoolyard football 

Max Headroom, televisual creature

Normandin's brief laughter

The green audiovisual landscape in the morning

TV doesn't compensate for anything

Oceaniques' gamble

Bouvard at dusk

The other "mass" - the real one

Philippe Bauchard's stock rises in value

Once again, the example of the English

Averty for ever

Waiting for the snow

Back to the future

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