(no subject)
Another post in the 'too long etc' category. I admit to not having read all of the TLS article. Yet. I'm interested though because I've read one book by this author and, as I recall, was a little dubious at the time. I began here (one of my regular blog stops), then followed his links to The Man Behind the Great Dickens and Dostoevsky Hoax and When Dickens Met Dostoevsky (or, rather, didn't). I like this:
"Doubts about the authenticity of the Dickens-Dostoevsky meeting spread, retractions were made, the Dickensian had egg on its face. But only recently did the full story of the deception emerge when Eric Naiman, a professor in the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote an immensely detailed six-page article in the TLS ("three days' work", says Harvey dismissively when I praise Naiman for his industry) establishing Harvey's academic avatars - not just Stephanie Harvey, but Graham Headley, Trevor McGovern, John Schellenberger, Leo Bellingham (author of Oxford: The Novel), Michael Lindsay and Ludovico Parra. Naiman traced the way in which, over the past 30 years, this group had been commenting on one another's work in scholarly journals and little magazines, sometimes praising one ano ther but occasionally finding fault too. "How comforting," Naiman commented drily, "to construct a community of scholars who can analyse, supplement and occasionally even ruthlessly criticise each other's work."
AD Harvey doesn't deny he is the creator of that community. Indeed, he says there are several identities which even Naiman has failed to unearth: Stephen Harvey, author of an article titled The Italian War Effort and the Strategic Bombing of Italy, published in the journal History in 1985; the Latvian poet Janis Blodnieks ("I search but cannot find the key/ Which will unlock the glowing door/ To the life which runs parallel/ To the world in which I am trapped"); and a variety of internet personalities which he prefers not to disclose as he says they might not reflect well on his output and interests. So who is the real AD Harvey?"
I'm not sure that I feel any sympathy although I admit to rather liking trolls.
"Doubts about the authenticity of the Dickens-Dostoevsky meeting spread, retractions were made, the Dickensian had egg on its face. But only recently did the full story of the deception emerge when Eric Naiman, a professor in the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote an immensely detailed six-page article in the TLS ("three days' work", says Harvey dismissively when I praise Naiman for his industry) establishing Harvey's academic avatars - not just Stephanie Harvey, but Graham Headley, Trevor McGovern, John Schellenberger, Leo Bellingham (author of Oxford: The Novel), Michael Lindsay and Ludovico Parra. Naiman traced the way in which, over the past 30 years, this group had been commenting on one another's work in scholarly journals and little magazines, sometimes praising one ano ther but occasionally finding fault too. "How comforting," Naiman commented drily, "to construct a community of scholars who can analyse, supplement and occasionally even ruthlessly criticise each other's work."
AD Harvey doesn't deny he is the creator of that community. Indeed, he says there are several identities which even Naiman has failed to unearth: Stephen Harvey, author of an article titled The Italian War Effort and the Strategic Bombing of Italy, published in the journal History in 1985; the Latvian poet Janis Blodnieks ("I search but cannot find the key/ Which will unlock the glowing door/ To the life which runs parallel/ To the world in which I am trapped"); and a variety of internet personalities which he prefers not to disclose as he says they might not reflect well on his output and interests. So who is the real AD Harvey?"
I'm not sure that I feel any sympathy although I admit to rather liking trolls.