Jonah Lehrer's Downfall and the Boy Who Cried Wolf



How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

 In folklore, a boy cries "Wolf" and loses all credibility. No one believes him the next time he cries "Wolf"  which leads inexorably to him be eaten up.

The boy who cried wolf is a fitting analogy for Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust was a Neuroscientist, How We Decide, and Imagine.

Best-selling author and wunderkind journalist has been called out for self-plagiarizing: that is duplicating material and submitting it to two competing news agencies. Five of Lehrer's New Yorker posts now come with editorial notes regretting "duplication" of material published earlier. Unfortunately for Lehrer, the postings are not a re-spin or an update but an almost verbatim duplication of earlier material.

Lehrer's book Imagine is even more problematic as it contains undocumented quotations and, as it turns out, completely fabricated quotations ascribed to the singer Bob Dylan.

Publisher, Harcourt-Mifflin, has pulled Imagine largely because of the fabricated Dylan quotations.

In How We Decide, an earlier work, Lehrer quotes quarterback, Tom Brady; Plato; Thomas Jefferson; Sigmund Freud; Francisco Goya; MIT professor, Marvin Minsky; neurologist, Antonio Damasio; David Hume; Days of Our Lives director, Herb Stein; NYU neuroscientist, Joseph LeDoux; American philosopher, William James, and many others.

Naturally, any reader would now want to know if any of these quotations were fabricated. Lehrer's publisher Harcourt-Mifflin is reportedly reviewing all of  his books.
As it turns out, Lehrer has fabricated more than just the Dylan quotations. Kevin Breen in The Skeptical Libertarian exposes yet another falsehood.

In Imagine Lehrer describes Teller of the magic duo, Penn and Teller, as ready to quit magic in the early eighties. He quotes Teller as saying, "I was ready to go back home and become a high-school Latin teacher."

Breen of The Skeptical Libertarian tracks Teller down in Las Vegas who purports he never gave Lehrer the quote abou being ready to give up.

The false Teller quote is actually worst than the fabricated Dylan quotations. The Dylan quotations, while false, are not completely out of character with the man.

If you create something that is utterly false (a Wolf), inevitably you will lose credibility. It remains to be seen whether Lehrer's reputation or personal brand will survive but the odds are against him--as they should be.

Review of Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

All Chip Linton wants when he moves to Bethel, New Hampshire is a little peace and quiet for his family. He has already survived the unthinkable, a plane crash. Since he was the pilot, he blames himself for not being able to pull off a "Miracle on the Hudson" type maneuver.

Tragically, Linton is not able to pull off the same type of miracle and 39 of the flight's passengers die. In therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, Chip vows never to fly again.

Emily, Chip's wife, decides the family needs to move away from Philadelphia but she has a difficult time adjusting to the Victorian house. She's grateful for the anonymity; she was tired of fielding questions about the crash.

On the other hand, she finds the house's history creepy. The former inhabitant's twelve-year-old son is rumored to have killed himself in the house. The house's internal structure is strange: each of the three floors is a little narrower than the preceding one, the wallpaper is hideous, and the basement has a bolted door that seemingly leads nowhere.

In addition, why are there so many greenhouses in Bethel? Every house, including the one Chip and Emily have just bought, seem to have one. Why does everyone in the town seem overly interested in the Linton twins.
Bohjalian's narrative most freely back and forth among all the characters but it is actually the twins' impressions which stand out. Despite their father's fragility and nightmares, the twins are face even greater dangers.

This is marvelous, well-researched novel by one of America's best writers. Chris Bohjalian writes that he spoke to countless pilots to get the details right.

The epilogue, however, made me sad. While I didn't expect Chip to become an all-American hero  that Sully Sullenberger was, I thought he could at least save his family from the herbalists. The ending is disturbing, albeit thought-provoking.

If you're reading this for a book club, you may want to discuss what you would do differently if you were Chip or Emily Linton.

Other books by Chris Bohjalian:
Before You Know Kindness
Buffalo Soldier
Double Bind
Idyll Banter
Law of Similars
Midwives
Secrets of Eden
Skeletons at the Feast
Sandcastle Girls
Trans-Sister Radio
Water Witches