This spring, the pseudonymous “Ferdinand Bardamu” of the defunct manosphere blog In Mala Fide self-published a book/ebook collecting together his, er, best posts from that terrible, terrible blog. I actually bought a copy of the ebook — for research — and it is awful. Somehow putting Bardamu’s posts in book form makes even more clear how puerile — and how badly written — they really are.
But there are evidently some people out there who disagree. Indeed, I recently ran across a review of the book that could not have been more glowing had it been written by the author himself:
Three Years of Hate is an invaluable, priceless book not merely because it’s well-written, entertaining and thought-provoking. It’s worth reading because it’s a piece of history. It’s a record of one of the most influential and important thinkers of our times. Decades from now, when the current dystopia is naught but a bad memory, Ferdinand Bardamu will be remembered as one of the architects of its fall.
Elsewhere in the review, which appeared on the site Alternative Right in March of this year, the execrable Bardamu is described as
one of the best writers of modern times (and no, that is not hyperbole)
He’s lauded for his “tenacity and courage”; his prose is said to
lurch … and crackle .. like lightning, grabbing you by the back of your neck and shoving you face-first into the action.
In the end, the reviewer concludes that Bardamu had
An influence far greater—and far more of a force for good in the world—than the frauds who attacked him.
Frauds, huh? That’s an interesting way to close out his review, given that the person writing it was none other than … the odious Matt Forney.
Yes, that’s right, the guy who — a month or so later — revealed to the world that HE WAS “FERDINAND BARDAMU.”
If you’re relying on glowing reviews to sell your book, and your book is a piece of crap, you might as well write the glowing reviews yourself, huh?
I suppose Forney’s explanation would be that it was all a big joke, and that by then “everyone knew” that Forney and Bardamu were one and the same, but that’s not true, and he didn’t confirm that fact for more than another month in any case.
I can’t remember exactly where I ran across a reference to theis ingenious little bit of self-boosterism, but I think it was while reading back through some old posts on the always interesting blog Roosh & Me: An Old Feminist Looks at the New Misogynist, by Cinzia La Strega. who is an occasional commenter over here on Man Boobz.
Cute Creature World Domination!
::applauds::
::whistles::
::tosses hat in air::
But…but…the MRA double period ellipsis!
We’ll pretend it’s animal eyes watching their minions?
“We’ll pretend it’s animal eyes watching their minions?”
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a7/42/fd/a742fda31e5bd49f8d3d9d13bbda0184.jpg
Oooh, ninjaed! I was going to reply with this.
… though come to think of it, titianblue’s Witchy Kitty pic from earlier would be a great Cat Anger Consequences portrait.
Yea! I’m a ninja!
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/03/b4/8f/03b48fceb2973311677ed6d552ea6724.jpg
I once unmasked someone doing the same thing – or rather, once a particular artist (I won’t say which field as I don’t want to drop even the tiniest hint) was unmasked as using a pretty distinctive username in an online forum, it became clear that he’d been writing similar third-person eulogies to himself across a large number of sites including Amazon.
I didn’t do anything about it (I didn’t even send the author a PM advising him that his secret was out) because I thought it was more sad than amusing – unlike Bardamu, this guy actually had some talent, although it unfortunately came with a thoroughly obnoxious personality attached, which may well have been one of the reasons why he had difficulty finding genuinely independent champions. (And in any case, saying that he had “some talent” wouldn’t have been good enough for this guy – he clearly thought of himself as an authentically Godlike genius.)
Two other real-life examples, this time involving celebrities: the distinguished historian Orlando Figes was caught not merely boosting his own work (a curiously pointless endeavour, since he had justifiably earned many excellent reviews by genuinely disinterested third parties) but excoriating his rivals, two of whom sued him for libel. And to this day, if you type his name into Google, the third and fourth autocomplete options are “Orlando Figes Amazon Scandal” and “Orlando Figes Scandal”.
More amusingly, Anthony Burgess was once fired from the Yorkshire Evening Post for reviewing one of his own books (published under a pseudonym), which he thought was very unfair, (a) because he sincerely believed that the paper’s literary editor was fully aware that it was his own work, and (b) because, while under the impression that it was an in-joke, he wrote an exaggeratedly bad review!
Michael S. Olsen is a master of time and space and not a drunken bum. He only wears the finest silk garments and not what just seems to be slightly clean. He’s a billionaire and not at all a destitute idiot. He can leap tall buildings in a single bound and does not get winded by taking the elevator. He has a glorious visage and does in no way look like an axemurderers mugshot. Wait… My brain seems to eating itself. Well, we’ll be right back after these commercials.
kittehserf:
I’d wish he was his ONLY fan!
LBT:
I hope you’re not kidding, because it does sound awesome.
Amazon recently sent me an email asking me how many stars I would give one of my own books and suggesting I write a review. The temptation to do so was almost overwhelming.
I wonder if this person is R. J. Patton?
Ferdinand Bardamu is an anagram of Brain Damned Fraud. Make of that what you will.
******
“In a world where book reviews sound like movie trailers, Buttercup’s most recent Manboobz comment is a rollicking, gritty tour de force. If Reality could ghostwrite Truth’s autobiography, this would be it. A billion years from now, a grateful Milky Way galaxy will remember Buttercup as the lifeform who single-handedly eliminated stupidity from the universe.”
– Pantscup Q. Scuttlebutt
“Ferdinand Bardamu is an anagram of Brain Damned Fraud. Make of that what you will.”
Dammnit
ButtercupPantscup, I was enjoying that bowl of cereal!RE: lane deau
I hope you’re not kidding, because it does sound awesome.
I never kid about my writing. It is all true! See for yourself! Cloudiah, Kittehs, and valerian are regulars at my writeathons.
I could see this making sense in a review for a novel (it’d still be over the top, of course), but a book of rants? What “action” is there?
See, that’s the sort of shenanigans I could get behind.
Ah, the glorious Sprezzatura of Matt Forney: