Μεταξύ άλλων, ο Doug Ireland, αναφέρεται και στα λεγόμενα των γάλλων δημοσιογράφων που έχουν ανοίξει μέτωπο με τον γάλλο περιφερόμενο διανοούμενο:
Two French journalists—Nicolas Beau of Le Canard Enchainé and Olivier Toscer of Le Nouvel Observateur—have just published in Paris Une Imposture Francaise (A French Imposter), an inquest into how BHL has built his success. They write:
A philosopher who’s never taught the subject in any university, a journalist who creates a cocktail mingling the true, the possible, and the totally false, a patch-work filmmaker, a writer without a real literary oeuvre, he is the icon of a media-driven society in which simple appearance weighs more than the substance of things. BHL is thus first and foremost a great communicator, the PR man of the only product he really knows how to sell: himself.
The flaws in BHL’s work have been evident from the beginning. His third book, the 1979 Le Testament de Dieu, was shot down in flames by Hellenist historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet (a moral leader of the French left) in a famous Nouvel Observateur article that detailed BHL’s numerous errors. To take just two, BHL cited texts he claimed were from the decline of the Roman Empire (fourth century) which were actually from the first century B.C., and cited Heinrich Himmler’s “deposition” at the Nuremburg trials, which opened six months after the SS leader’s suicide. Interviewed 20 years later by Jade Lindgaard and Xavier de la Porte, the authors of Le B.A. BA du BHL (The ABCs of BHL), Vidal-Naquet said sadly, “We have passed from the Republic of Letters into the non-Republic of Media. I thought I had ‘killed’ BHL. I hadn’t. I consider that a defeat.”
Το ενδιαφέρον της υπόθεσης είναι ο πομπώδης ισχυρισμός του Levy ότι έχει επαναλάβει κάτι αντίστοιχο με το διάσημο οδοιπορικό (Η Δημοκρατία στην Αμερική) του Alexis De Toqueville. Δε νομίζω, αλλά για να το δηλώνει, δε μπορεί... έτσι θα είναι!
(φωτό από: www.olivierroller.com)
