The Experts Speak: Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation

[TheWraith]

The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation
By Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky

Anyone else here ever read this? It's a collection of all the erroneous, mistaken, lying, and flat out wrong statements made by so-called "experts" in any given field over approximately the last thousand years. It's organized by subject, starting with the creation and status of the Earth as a heavenly body, and moves on from there. Some of it is fairly standard, stuff like the belief that the Earth was flat. Other parts are really quite fascinating--such as the leader of the U.S. military mission to Vietnam describing how they'd win the war without using a single US soldier, circa 1954. Or literary critics discussing how terrible Orwell's 1984 was, and how the only memorable work of Mark Twain was "The Jumping Frog." Or even better, the inventor of the motion-picture camera, saying that his invention had no commercial value whatsoever.

If you get it, make sure you get the 1998 edition. They went back and updated the original 1984 text with tons of new material.

"You'd better learn secretarial work, or else get married."
--Emmeline Snively, Director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, counseling would-be model Marilyn Monroe, 1944.

[acmejack]

1. I had the old edition.

Fascinating is the only way to put it.

[bemildred]

2. Sits on my shelf, nearby.

An antidote to all the authoritarian bullshit we are constantly fed.

May I recommend "Less Than Words Can Say" by Richard Mitchell?

http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/

[CrispyQ]

3. "Less Than Words Can Say" sounds like an excellent book.

I'll check my library for it & if they don't have it, I'll probably buy it.