Some hoaxes and forgeries clearly demonstrate to society the low nature of their creators, which makes it both sad and scary for the people and their future. You don’t need to be a genius to steal someone else’s work, destroy countless lives, or bring the world to catastrophe. Centuries of human existence have accumulated many such undiscovered deceptions, cunning substitutions, and cruel provocations. And yet, the genre of hoax is full of surprises and discoveries. If you treat it exclusively as a work of creativity, it is engaging and contagious. What else is capable of testing and revealing human strengths and weaknesses as thoroughly as a hoax?
Great Pushkin, for example, wasn’t offended by Mérimée’s prank. What’s more, a talented hoax sometimes brings together people who are absolutely different—like the group of authors of the “burime” novel “Big Fires.” Create creative hoaxes, play along with them, and invite others to play too! After all, play is the foundation of the world’s development.