JT LeRetard
So, you know that whole JT Leroy scandal? I was amazed by it- not that "he" doesn't exist, but that so many people believed he was a real person.
Did any of you actually read what he wrote? I knew from the first short story that I read, when "he" was writing under the name Terminator for Nerve.com, that the events portrayed in the story were not real and the author was never a street hooker.
It was a pretty gross story about him being locked in a hotel room by his pimp and he and his friend fool around with each other and one of them comes. The story is about how the pimp will be mad if he came without getting paid for it by a client, so they have to decide what to do with the splooge before the pimp gets back. (Spoiler: his friend eats it.)
The novel Sarah was similar. The whole child kidnap part and lucky jackalope or whatever it was were clearly not real. Overall, I thought the novel was cute. An exciting new voice in literature? Not even close.
My friend Rachael met someone at a party very early on who told her about this scam this girl and her husband were pulling, not knowing that Rachael knew exactly what he was talking about. But the thing that made me doubt my opinion, and Rachael's sanity, was the therapist.
Early on, every article about Leroy talked about this particular doctor, by name, at a particular hospital. I believe the doctor was even quoted in articles. It seems that a doctor wouldn't do that if it wasn't true. He is the one person that kept me from researching Rachael's story. I still felt that "his" past history was fake, but thought maybe there could be a real person- for a while.
However, as the whole "wig and sunglasses" thing got out of control, it seemed more and more clear that the person posing as Leroy was not him. I stopped paying any attention to it and never bothered to read The Heart is Deceitful. His articles in 7X7 magazine were uninteresting and poorly written.
Every post-outing article I've read not written by someone who "interviewed" Leroy ends the same. It says the mystique of the author sold a lot of copies of the books, but the excellent literary work stands on its own.
No, it really doesn't.
Did any of you actually read what he wrote? I knew from the first short story that I read, when "he" was writing under the name Terminator for Nerve.com, that the events portrayed in the story were not real and the author was never a street hooker.
It was a pretty gross story about him being locked in a hotel room by his pimp and he and his friend fool around with each other and one of them comes. The story is about how the pimp will be mad if he came without getting paid for it by a client, so they have to decide what to do with the splooge before the pimp gets back. (Spoiler: his friend eats it.)
The novel Sarah was similar. The whole child kidnap part and lucky jackalope or whatever it was were clearly not real. Overall, I thought the novel was cute. An exciting new voice in literature? Not even close.
My friend Rachael met someone at a party very early on who told her about this scam this girl and her husband were pulling, not knowing that Rachael knew exactly what he was talking about. But the thing that made me doubt my opinion, and Rachael's sanity, was the therapist.
Early on, every article about Leroy talked about this particular doctor, by name, at a particular hospital. I believe the doctor was even quoted in articles. It seems that a doctor wouldn't do that if it wasn't true. He is the one person that kept me from researching Rachael's story. I still felt that "his" past history was fake, but thought maybe there could be a real person- for a while.
However, as the whole "wig and sunglasses" thing got out of control, it seemed more and more clear that the person posing as Leroy was not him. I stopped paying any attention to it and never bothered to read The Heart is Deceitful. His articles in 7X7 magazine were uninteresting and poorly written.
Every post-outing article I've read not written by someone who "interviewed" Leroy ends the same. It says the mystique of the author sold a lot of copies of the books, but the excellent literary work stands on its own.
No, it really doesn't.
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