Saturday, August 04, 2012

Why Jonah Lehrer Matters:

Correspondingly, there will be no appearance on Oprah, biopic, or protracted lawsuit following Lehrer's resignation from The New Yorker staff. Indeed, since the news broke on Monday, the issue is stabilizing and fading (though it could surely flare up again if other lies or thefts surface.) Though the recall of his book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, will cost his publishing house a bit of scratch, neither they, nor The New Yorker will experience any serious fallout from these limited (if low and troubling) sins. Ultimately, Lehrer should be (and will be) the only one feeling pain here. And, yet, this revelation has sparked more sadness — within the industry and among readers — than outrage, a marked departure from how the public treated James Frey or Mike Daisey.