<div dir="ltr"><div>Anna,</div><div><br></div><div>I find your mention of the Museum of Jurassic Technology to resonate quite exactly with what I find to be a very powerful kind of fake. The fake that quietly troubles the truth-claims of communication. </div><div><br></div><div>It's neither hoax nor sham, neither ruse, nor scam -- but a reflection of one mode of communication in an untrustworthy mirror -- reminding us that all mirrors are likewise untrustworthy. It performs a kind of sleight of hand with authenticity. Or rather it makes authenticity a subject for play and inquiry.</div><div><br></div><div>Or is it kayfabe -- the acknowledged fake -- as in the world of (*spoiler alert*) professional wrestling (which my writing partner Rob Wittig likes to cite)? (And, as he likes to point out, novels started out in this zone as well...)<br></div><div><br></div><div>Renate's example of Larious' Warhol interview further complicates this artistic mode, as does Warhol himself. What of Cindy Sherman? </div><div><br></div><div>Could we add Andy Kaufman? </div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><span style="font-size:12.8px">Larious critically asks his readers if it is possible that we discern ?fakery? and ?mockery? from the ?real? in an age where everything is layered with the discrepancies of digital re-production and social media.</span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>And yet there are those who accuse post-modern art and deconstruction for this mess we're in. Too much irony. Too much self-reflexivity. Too much Simpsons.</div><div><br></div><div>I don't find that a reason to try to banish all irony, condemn the satirical, throw the Campbell's soup out with the Watergate.</div><div><br></div><div>I find the troubling of these lines rather productive.</div><div><br></div><div>Of course, I may be a very suspect person on this topic.</div><div><br></div><div>Looking forward to how this month unfolds.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for opening these questions.</div><div>Mark</div>
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