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Fakers: Hoaxers, Con Artists, Counterfeiters, and Other Great Pretenders

by Paul Maliszewski

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512500,659 (2.11)2
A fascinating exploration of the varieties of faking, from its historical root in satire and con artistry to its current boom in popularity. Including tales from the New York Sun's 1835 moon hoax, to Maliszewski's own satiric letters which he duplicitously sent to his editor whilst working as a reporter, and the invented poet Ern Malley, he explains why fakers almost always find believers and flourish. Since 1997, the author has researched fakers, asking why they disembled and how believers were fooled. Fakers exposes much about belief, forgery and truth.… (more)
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Engagingly written, the first section of the book into Paul Maliszewski's own writings is both sad and amusing - amusing because so many of the examples he gives are obviously satirical, sad because these articles were believed due to the expectations of their readers and publishers.

The entire book is a tribute to the fraud and fakeries of phony journalism and writing (from deliberate misrepresentation to lazy fact checking and plagiarism which allows the internet-moderated version of gossip and 'chinese whispers' to bring 'reality' to what isn't) to some examples ranging from art fraud to plain cons. Unfortunately (or should that be fortunately?) the result seems to be a bland recitation rather than a study - an impression strengthened by the lack of any kind of bibliography (or even a short index).

The book is a light, generalist introduction to the field (as it were) , but if you are interested in more detailed who/when/where/why you'll want to delve further and I, at least, was left feeling mildly dissatisfied. A read for a day when concentration is low. ( )
  RSard | Jun 16, 2013 |
Some essays were interesting, but there were too many that did not hold my interest. ( )
  cantinera | Mar 30, 2013 |
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A fascinating exploration of the varieties of faking, from its historical root in satire and con artistry to its current boom in popularity. Including tales from the New York Sun's 1835 moon hoax, to Maliszewski's own satiric letters which he duplicitously sent to his editor whilst working as a reporter, and the invented poet Ern Malley, he explains why fakers almost always find believers and flourish. Since 1997, the author has researched fakers, asking why they disembled and how believers were fooled. Fakers exposes much about belief, forgery and truth.

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