This reminds me of a profile written recently in The New Yorker where Dan Mallory (or A.J. Finn, a bestseller of the novel, The Woman in the Window) made up a whole bunch of lies. This included not only claiming that he had top PhDs but that he had personal psychological problems, which was used to advance his career in book publishing. I'm not sure how culture is reacting to these stories. Are the people who do these things continuing to profit off of these behaviors? Because it looks like Dan Mallory is still going to have an adapted film out by the end of this year. And he's going to be writing another book.
I wonder if all this back-and-forth buzz is feeding them and offering them even larger audiences? Is it encouraging others to act this way?
If anyone's interested in the New Yorker piece: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/11/a-suspense-nov...