I hate to respond to this because it's so absurd, but I've been asked about it more than once, so here goes:
In order for JT to be a hoax, he would have had to fool Vanity Fair (the U.S. and British versions), the New York Times, BlackBook, Interview, Paper, Index, I-D, Spin, 7 X 7, Viking Press, Bloomsbury Press, Last Gasp Books, Zoetrope, Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida, Bono, Zadie Smith, Madonna, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Arthur Bradford, Mary Karr, Carrie Fisher, Yoko Ono, Jerry Harrison and, oh yeah, my mom and me, among others. (Maybe you can fool Madonna, but you can't fool my mom.)
Also, he would have to had raise several thousand dollars over the years for Dr. Terrence Owens' Mc Auley Institute at St. Mary's Hospital, *spontaneously and for no apparent reason.*
And anyone who knows JT well knows he could never pull off a hoax. He's erudite and silly and probably a genius, but I once spent five minutes on the phone with him while he looked for stamps. He could never perpetuate fraud--not only because he's totally moral--but because he's too unorganized:
Who is JT LeRoy? The True Identity of a Great Literary Hustler
1 comment:
"Anyone who knows JT well..." And who might that be?
"...knows he could never pull off a hoax..." If he doesn't exist, this is surely true, but it misses the point.
Hoaxes are wonderful, and I celebrate this amazing hoax. Stephen Beachy did a masterly job of not only getting what facts there are, but in putting the hoax into perspective. It was and probably will be for years to come a magnificent literary accomplishment.
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