Description

When Dionysus the Rebel faked a Sophocles wording in 400 Bc (cunningly placing the acrostic 'Heraclides is ignorant of letters') to humiliate an educational rival, he paved the way for two millennia of increasingly outlandish literary hoaxers. The road from his naughty stop to more severe tricksters such as the controversial Oprah and memoirist -duper James Frey, consumes every kind of author: from the religious zealot for the student, via the academic and the out-and-out joker. But whether hoaxing for popularity, money, politics or easy enjoyment, each criminal signifies anything distinctive about why we create. Their experiences speak volumes about how exactly writing, reading and posting have become from the exclusive and good locations of yesteryear into large-company, Television-guide-membership-brought mass-areas which, some might claim, are fresh for your tearing.