JT Leroy

[rm]

I find the continuing saga of Who is JT Leroy really sad and confusing. Eventually, it's something I hope I can find a way to write eloquently about. As someone with a creative interest in matters of commerce, there is a great deal to be said about two women working together to create a literary and physical fictional identity, masquerading as true, in the form of a young, male prostitute. Fantasy or fame grab? Part of the art or outside of it?

The DVD edition I have of My Own Private Idaho contains an interview conducted by JT Leroy, whoever and however that may be. And it makes me sad while also being a strange and suitable footnote to that movie both in its content and surrounding mythology -- dead movie stars and people who never existed. Someone is supposed to argue about whether there is much difference there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/09/books/09book.html

Comments

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

I'd seen some of this a few months ago, as suspicion mounted, but not really tracked, as his fiction didn't strike me as interesting enough to pursue at the time. But jeeeez.... screwing over friends like that for fame and money....

And still, I wonder just how one pulls something like that off, and if I could.