Fake

by Kati Stevens

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

The electric candle and faux fur, coffee substitutes and meat analogues, Obama impersonators, prosthetics. Imitation this, false that. Humans have been replacing and improving upon the real thing for millennia – from wooden toes found on Egyptian mummies to the Luxor pyramid in Las Vegas. So why do people have such disdain for so-called "fakes†??

Kati Stevens's Fake discusses the strange history of imitations, as well as our ever-changing psychological and socioeconomic relationships with them. After all, fakes aren't going anywhere; they seem to be going everywhere.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

160 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2018

Reviews

[Brevin Persike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series was suggested to me so I dug around and picked this to be my first read from the series. I like the concept of the book and the idea of the series a lot: how does this one word, concept, thing change the way we understand society and culture. That’s a really good basis for a series of short nonfiction books. I am between rating this 3 and 4 stars because, while this book is really great conceptually, I’m practice it fails to make its points as clear as it could. I went into the book thinking that we would dive in deeper and deeper into the word “fake” so as to get a great picture of its place in contemporary society, but this book ends up separating into distinct chapters that refuse to build on each other - as if the synthesis of each point is left out.
So it is interesting and mostly well written, but it’s also disjointed and sometimes feels like it could be more cohesive between sections.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Silk flowers, prosthetic limbs, cosmetic surgeries, museum displays/replicas, architectural facades, theme parks, virtual reality, impersonators, impressionists, prostitutes, play actors, censorship, ad campaigns, genetic engineering, clones, processed foods, imposter syndrome...

Stevens packs a punch in batting around weighty concepts of fake, faux, and fraud and the implications on human society and evolution. Her witty, high humor pulls from ancient history to modern pop culture with an upbeat tone and conclusion that our species, while obsessed with paradox, is evolving along a spectrum with net positive effects.
"There is no false hope, only hope."

Bravo, Object Lessons. Another favourite of the series!