Reading in the Time of Monsters 010 - “Unmask Alice” and Literary Forgery, with John Dolan aka The War Nerd

This is a big one! One my literary heroes, John Dolan aka Gary Brecher aka The War Nerd comes onto RITTOM to discuss Rick Emerson’s “Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries” and the broader topic of literary forgery and fraud. You may have read some of Beatrice Sparks’ fabulisms in middle school, maybe even got assigned such dubious classics as “Go Ask Alice” without having been told it wasn’t a real druggie diary, but the fabrication of a supremely frustrated middle class Mormon housewife. John and I get into the broader history of literary forgery, why people produce and believe them, and some dirty truths about the reader-author-publisher relationship. “Unmask Alice” is a great book and this was a fantastic discussion, if I do say so myself.

I mentioned Strange Aeons, a youtuber who does internet history, including work on literary fabulism, which as you can imagine gets pretty wild in internet fandom communities. She’s a really great historian and critic, check out her YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@STRANGEONS . You might figure this isn’t my thing- but thoughtful, rigorous history of culture that isn’t my thing IS my thing, indeed. Plus she’s funny! A good place to start, if you’re into literary fraud, is her story on tumblr fandom gadabout “hivliving”.

If you’re listening to this, there’s a good chance you already know of this, but John Dolan is one half of Radio War Nerd, a podcast covering the “world of wars” and occasionally other topics like literature as well, from the unique and uncompromising perspective Dolan and Mark Ames bring to things. You can find it at: https://www.patreon.com/radiowarnerd/posts

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