| Title | : | The Impostor: BHL in Wonderland |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2004 |
This book, based on a careful investigation comparing BHL's words with his deeds, seeks to explore the remarkable persistence of this celebrity pseudo-philosopher since he burst onto the scene in 1977. Delving into his networks in the spheres of politics, the media and big business, Lindgaard and de la Porte reveal what the success of this three-decade long imposture tells us about the degeneration of contemporary French intellectual and cultural life.
About the series: Counterblasts is a new Verso series that aims to revive the tradition of polemical writing inaugurated by Puritan and leveller pamphleteers in the seventeenth century, when in the words of one of them, Gerard Winstanley, the old world was “running up like parchment in the fire.” From 1640 to 1663, a leading bookseller and publisher, George Thomason, recorded that his collection alone contained over twenty thousand pamphlets. Such polemics reappeared both before and during the French, Russian, Chinese and Cuban revolutions of the last century. In a period of conformity where politicians, media barons and their ideological hirelings rarely challenge the basis of existing society, it’s time to revive the tradition. Verso’s Counterblasts will challenge the apologists of Empire and Capital.
The Impostor: BHL in Wonderland Reviews
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They say one should not go to bed angry - well the same apparently applies to writing a book! Jade Lindgard and Xavier de la Porte enthusiastically want to expose a man, who by all accounts is quite an unpleasant human being. The so called philosopher, Bernard-Henri Lévy is a privileged, vain man, who has risen to unbelievable heights, despite being sloppy with facts and in some cases blatantly untruthful. He is the offspring of a particular sort of French elitism, that is quite far from being meritocratic. That being said, the authors are so filled with rage, that they do not manage to write a decent text, despite the ample ammunition at their disposal. When the text becomes like a pure rant, they become culpable of the same errors as they find fault in their subject.
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lots of funny details, very scattershot
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Occasionally hilarious, very entertaining, an almost obsessive catalogue of BHL's absurdity. Also, a couple of original interviews, including a very good one with Derrida about BHL and the "New Philosophy" in general.
