Nov 20, 2019
Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg) takes up a discussion with
Lydia Pyne
(@LydiaPyne), historian, about whether or not an authentic
Andy Warhol painting needs to be painted by Andy Warhol? And
should we be outraged that some of those famous scenes in Blue
Planet were filmed in a lab? Who are the scientists
putting ever-more improbable flavors in our
Jelly Belly beans? Welcome to the world of “genuine fakes”--the
curious objects that fall in between things that are real and
things that are not. Unsurprisingly, the world is full of genuine
fakes that defy simple categorization. Whether or not we think that
those things are authentic is a matter of perspective.
In Genuine
Fakes, Lydia Pyne explores how the authenticity of eight
genuine fakes depends on their unique combinations of history,
science and culture. The stories of art forgeries, fake fossils,
nature documentaries, synthetic flavors, museum exhibits, Maya
codices and Paleolithic replicas shows that genuine fakes are
complicated and change over time. Drawing from historical archives,
interviews, museum exhibits, science fiction as well as her own
research, Pyne brings each genuine fake to life through unexpected
and often outrageous stories.
Can people move past assuming that a diamond grown in a lab is a
fake? What happens when a forged painting or manuscript becomes
more valuable than its original? Genuine
Fakes will make readers think about all the unreal things
that they encounter in their daily lives and why they invoke the
reactions--surprise, wonder, understanding or annoyance--that they
do.