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Free publicity for ‘1434′

Sad to see the Daily Telegraph devoting a whole page to an interview with Gavin Menzies, not least because it seems unkind to encourage the old boy’s delusions of grandeur. Note the headline: “Mad as a snake - or a visionary?”

This is how counterknowledge is presented after it has metastasised from its original incarnation as ground-breaking theory. After scholars revealed that 1421 was made up, no journalist could ignore the controversy surrounding his work. So we move to stage two – scholars mock him, but could he possibly be right? And, anyway, look at his sales:

But while boiling oil was being poured on him from the ramparts of academe, Menzies’s book was surging up the bestseller list. It has sold a million copies worldwide, and run to 24 editions in 135 countries.

So that’s all right, then. Note the language, incidentally: “while boiling oil was being poured on him from the ramparts of academe.” Much more dramatic than the truth: “while scholars were systematically demolishing his thesis with hard data.”

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Posted in Pseudohistory.

By Damian Thompson
4 August 2008

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4 responses

  1. valdemar said
    on 4 August 2008

    This guy seems to be one step up from Erich von Daniken re: respect for evidence. You really do need a bog-ignorant audience to flog this stuff. I can only conclude that the teaching of history in schools effectively stopped at least a generation ago.

  2. Ronni Curtis said
    on 5 August 2008

    Well, Damian, since you write for the paper, don’t you think you should have a quiet word with the editor?

  3. Damian Thompson said
    on 5 August 2008

    Ronni, I’ve already made my feelings known. I can’t really say more than that.

Incoming links from other sites

  1. Gavin Menzies’ sjøsprøyt « Nekropolis - den historiske bloggen linked to this post on 4 August 2008

    [...] På nettsiden Counterknowledge fortviler forfatteren Damian Thompson (Jepp, jeg har fått lest boka hans! Den anbefales!) over at pressen ikke klarer å styre seg denne gangen heller - og nå er det med viten og vilje. Ingen som har gjort det aller minste lille forsøk på research om Menzies kan ha unngått å få med seg all den faglige motbøren teoriene hans har blitt utsatt for. Like forbannet forholder pressen seg fremdeles servilt logrende til påstandene. Og vel så det. Thompson skriver: [...]

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