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JT Leroy hoax

Started by Icehaven, April 23, 2019, 01:01:07 PM

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Icehaven

Anyone heard of/remember this 'great literary hoax'? I'd have been in my early 20s at the time, English Lit student and devourer of pop culture but I don't remember it at all.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/23/my-life-as-jt-leroy-savannah-knoop-on-playing-the-great-literary-hoaxer

It does look to all intents as if they were trying to get away with it, which begs the question why did the author choose a girl to 'play' Leroy? That increased their chances of being exposed considerably I'd have thought, particularly when she started going around shagging film stars.

There was a great documentary about this on Storyville a few years ago that's well worth checking out.  It's all a bit Milli Vanilli, but I love a good "stitch up the arts entablishment" tale.

Phil_A

I remember that documentary, the whole saga was so bizarre and implausible (especially when Billy Corgan turned up in the story) I was expecting them to reveal the entire story was a hoax.

flotemysost

Oh god, this is one of those weird phenomena that I'll occasionally half-remember maybe two or three times a year, but I could never recall the author's pseudonym so Googling proved difficult and I wondered if I just imagined it, but no, apparently not (I considered starting an 'identify this author' thread recently).

Thanks An Actual Propeller for that Storyville link, I'l have to check that out at some point.

I also remember reading some of the novel Sarah in a charity shop - I was convinced it was called Cherry Vanilla and thought I was going mad when Googling yielded nothing, but turns out that was the narrator's name, so I'm not completely insane and this thread is proof.


gatchamandave

#4
It gets better - so convincing was he/she that Asia Argento made it into a rather intense film. Its a very queasy thing to watch, as she was playing the mother and spares the viewer nothing. Certainly not to be watched for entertainment.

Icehaven

Quote from: gatchamandave on May 02, 2019, 10:50:20 PM
It gets better - so convincing was he/she that Asia Argento made it into a rather intense film. Its a very queasy thing to watch, as she was playing the mother and spares the viewer nothing. Certainly not to be watched for entertainment.

Given Asia Argento was the aforementioned film star he/she was shagging I'm not entirely sure she was unaware of the lie.