Not Like Us

Rereading Kira Thurman's "Singing Like Germans" in an era of queasy prophecy.

Stay with me on this one: On December 28, 2021, and January 3, 2022, twin brothers Grichka and Igor (respectively) died of covid in Paris. Born into an aristocratic lineage, the brothers and French TV hosts amassed a mad libs sort of legacy by the time of their deaths.

They were famous around the world for their extensive use of botox and plastic surgery, both of which they denied using. They received dubious doctorate degrees: Grichka in mathematics, Igor in physics. They courted controversy for publishing incomprehensible papers about the state of the universe before the Big Bang that were believed to be hoaxes, an act that earned the nickname “L’Affaire Bogdanoff.” They later became professors of cosmology at alleged Serbian diploma mill Megatrend University (yes, that’s actually the name). Later in life, they claimed that they had written some of the original source code for Bitcoin and that Satoshi Nakamoto had given them a pair of “ancient,” physical Bitcoins.

One constant in the …