Twitter falls for a fake Cormac McCarthy account, again
Musings from the fake account began to pick up steam this past weekend, leading to the account being verified
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Fool Twitter once with a fake Cormac McCarthy account, shame on you; fool Twitter twice with a fake Cormac McCarthy account… well, maybe the social media platform will understand that the famed author is most likely not going to create an account. The Twitter verification system was duped once again by a McCarthy wannabe after amassing thousands of views and followers for tweets that were all fake musings from the account pretending to be The Road and No Country For Old Men author. The imposter sent those tweets under the username @CormacMcCrthy.
“My publicist is on my case about my infrequent use of this infernal website,” the fake McCarthy wrote in a tweet. “He says engagement is down and so are metrics and something something who cares. There I wrote a tweet. Are you happy now Terry.”
While gullible fools like author Stephen King were tricked by this tweet, real McCarthy fans instantly knew something was amiss despite what Twitter claimed. It just takes a quick look at the full Twitter account page to realize it is obviously a parody account. A Pulitzer Prize winner who writes post-apocalyptic tales of brooding and violence would probably not concern themselves with critiquing kombucha or having their feelings hurt by a fortune cookie. The @CormacMcCrthy account has continued tweeting, but it’s clear that Twitter caught their oversight quickly—the parody account is no longer verified.
This is not the first time Twitter has verified a fake McCarthy account. In 2012, a Scottish writer by the name of Michael Crossan created a fake account for McCarthy that also received the blue check of approval and gained the attention of novelists like Margaret Atwood. Once it was revealed that Crossan was behind the account, Twitter completely removed his digital impersonation.
The real McCarthy, a reclusive 88-year-old, doesn’t even own a computer, much less spend his time twiddling his thumbs for the amusement of Twitter.
34 Comments
To be completely fair, Twitter users aren’t that intelligent, so fooling them isn’t all that difficult.
Did the account use any semicolons or quotation marks? Or did any tweet use more than a single comma? All dead giveaways that it’s not McCarthy.
One early tweet used a comma, and someone erupted “Fake! McCarthy never uses commas!”
His feet are light and nimble. He never tweets. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never tweets, the McCarthy. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.
Is that you, Cormac?
They died there against a myriad birthed from beyond the edge of all prospects, bent beneath horrors unremembered by time and lost amidst a sky sprent with stars no pilgrim would dare count, no prostitute dare curse. A ragged troupe silhouetted upon their wizened coursers, bivouacked against the sempiternal torrent amidst only sparse scrub. Rubicund apostates scouting out the claustral fugleman with a parched and hungry intransigence that brooked no supplicants and meandering blindly toward their twilit demise. Lost and caliginous in abandoned arroyos of depths unplumbed, etiolated wolves slanting through the crepuscular defile athwart their path, and behind, noisome abominations lost in the gloaming, waiting at their heels.
Gold. I want more.
So… they died?
big if true
Thank you for my new band name, Etiolated Wolves.
And mine! Robicund apostates! Actually, it seems like almost any two adjacent words from that passage could work as a band name.
Sempiternal Torrent and Noisome Abominations both sound like metal bands.
Too Much Punctuation
Careful there – you’re in danger of going straight through McCarthy and into Stephen Donaldson territory…
awesome comment. original and hilarious
He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never be verified.Eh, whattaya want, it’s Monday.
Terrence Malick should do a film adaptation of Blood Meridian.
I assumed it would be Paul Thomas Anderson. But maybe There Will Be Blood was as close as he wants to get.Or Wes Anderson, of course. Wes Anderson’s Blood Meridian would be amazing…
I think Suttree could actually work as a Wes Anderson film, especially the sections about Gene Harrogate, although his story would be great in almost anyone’s hands. McCarthy is rarely funny, but Gene’s parts of that book are hilarious.
Still…fuck off ,Terry.
I can’t imagine an author less likely to use Twitter, and that’s before learning from the article that he’s 88 years old.
Christopher Tolkien
Ironically the person behind this parody account is Thomas Pynchon.
Although Pynchon is getting up there as well (84) and seemingly not in the Tweeting demographic either, I was really surprised that in his 2013 novel Bleeding Edge, which deals with Manhattan software developers around the time of 9/11, featured actual coherent dialog about Java development, implying that he has more tech knowledge than you’d expect for his age.
Everybody knows Cormac McCarthy isn’t online and tweeting. What Twitter presupposes is…maybe he is?
Why would an article make a point saying he is “not” on twitter? You think Cormac McCarthy is especially “not” on Twitter? You didn’t even have to think about it, did you?
I always wanted to be a McCarthy, you know?It doesn’t mean what it used to though, does it.
So you can literally just say “Hey twitter, it’s me, Albert Einstein, verify me” and that’ll work?
There’s no way the real McCarthy can write a sentence under 280 characters long.
Seems as good a time as any to share this.
There is never a bad time to share that! perfect.
I think it worked because we just wanted it to be real. Now that Harlan’s gone, some of us need new cranky writer role models.
Hi. I’ve been reading various versions of the AVC since you were still just a print add-on in the Onion. I’ve had various versions of my avatar (kinda like how you have had various versions of your commenting section) for over a decade. I was somehow able to get everything moved from A to B, sometimes, but…technology.The reason I am going to be posting this repeatedly is because I for some reason got grayed a couple months ago and no one will give me reasons.
Comments as spam is a pain. I’m a long time reader, and I’ve put up with the changes over the years (mass migrations, editorial turnover…lack of classic TV coverage…need I go on??). But I’ve stuck with the AVC. I’ll even fully admit to posting as Frakes sometimes in post-ST:TNG relevant comments. It’s still my avatar, but you can probably figure it out.Or not. No notifications. No messages. No nothing. You guys are better than this. I’m going to be saving this post and reposting it endlessly until you guys figure it out.