Genuine Fakes: How Phony Things Teach Us About Real Stuff

Description

Does an authentic Andy Warhol painting need to be painted by Andy Warhol? Why do audiences feel outraged when they find out that scenes from their beloved blockbuster documentaries are staged? 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? This is a book about genuine fakes - the curious and complex objects that provoke these very sorts of questions. Genuine fakes fall into the space between things that are real and things that are not; whether or not we think that those things are authentic is a matter of perspective. Unsurprisingly, the world is full of genuine fakes - full of things that defy simple categorisation. From stories of audacious forgeries to feats of technological innovation, historian 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 flavours, museum exhibits, Maya codices and Palaeolithic replicas show that genuine fakes are both complicated and change over time. Drawing from historical archives, interviews, museum exhibits and science fiction as well as her own research, Pyne brings each genuine fake to life through unexpected and often outrageous stories. Genuine Fakes will make readers think about all the unreal things they encounter in their daily lives, and why they invoke the reactions - surprise, wonder, understanding or annoyance - that they do.

Lydia Pyne is a writer and historian, interested in the history of science and material culture. She has degrees in history and anthropology and a PhD in history and philosophy of science from Arizona State University, and is currently a visiting researcher at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her field and archival work has ranged from South Africa, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan and Iran to the American Southwest. Lydia's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, History Today, Time, The Scientist, Lady Science and Electric Literature as well as The Public Domain Review, and her previous book was Seven Skeletons, the story of human origins.

The best chapters in Ms. Pyne's book marry fine scientific explanation with cultural history and surprising twists. * Wall Street Journal * Lively, thought-provoking, and consistently surprising, this book forces us to think deeper about what authenticity and fakery really mean, at a time when such matters could hardly matter more. Lydia Pyne is the real deal. -- Ed Yong, science journalist and author of New York Times bestseller I Contain Multitudes Full of diverting tales. * Mail on Sunday * In turns thought-provoking and entertaining, Genuine Fakes is a vital book in a world of fake news and the search for authenticity. It is an eloquent and surprising exploration of the objects around us, which compels us to ask where we draw the line between real and fake. Sometimes authenticity is no more important than a good story. -- Kate Wiles, Senior Editor, History Today Genuine Fakes is full of fascinating stories about what Pyne shows is the thin and permeable line between real and fake in many more areas than I thought possible to combine so interestingly and gracefully. The book is packed with the human foibles that leave us vulnerable to the fake when our dreams are too big to be contained in the real. -- Erin Thompson, Professor of Art Crime, City University of New York In this fascinating, interdisciplinary study, Lydia Pyne challenges us to reflect on the social factors that inspire the creation of replicas, simulations, and forgeries. Ambitious in scope and engagingly written, Genuine Fakes is an authentically wonderful read. -- Benjamin Gross, Vice President for Research and Scholarship, Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology