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.
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.
1. The Start of Something Fake
2. That Which Is Fake May Never Die
3. Quorn for Lunch; Oreos for Dessert
4. What Was Never Real Can(not) Be Faked
5. Hippopotamus Teeth
6. Davids
7. Ovid and the Real Girl
8. The Start of Something Fake, Part 2
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Though the connotation of the fake is negative, the fact that have we been and continue to pursue the artificial version, the plastic replica, and the virtual experience so aggressively for so long suggests that it is time to rethink our relationship with so-called “fakes.”
Kati Stevens is a public affairs specialist based in Washington, D.C. Her writing has appeared in The Hairpin and The Billfold.
Fake aims to interrogate what it is we think we’re getting from the
‘real’ thing and what we’re searching for either by clamoring for
‘real’ things or by accepting their imitation … If you revel in the
critical examination of objects around you and criticism of
commonly accepted attitudes, this book will be your new friend.
*Seattle Book Review*
Fake is fascinating, clever, and utterly perspective-altering. Kati
Stevens is the genuine article.
*Emily Anthes, author of Frankenstein’s Cat (2013)*
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