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susannah_breslin

susannah_breslin

I'm lost
June 2005

OCT 12, 2005 07:15 PM

"Who Is the Real JT LeRoy?" asks New York Magazine. The answer may be a 40-year-old writer named Laura Albert. Journalist Stephen Beachy searches through interviews, profiles, and photographs of the author of Sarah and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things in an attempt to discover if LeRoy is the ambi-sexual wunderkind writer who worked as a lot lizard for his own mother that he claims to be. Along the way, Dennis Cooper, Mary Gaitskill, and the author's own agent debate whether or not the bewigged public persona seen over the last several years posing as LeRoy is, in fact, LeRoy, or if the supposed LeRoy is, in truth, a puppet stand-in for the person who claims to be LeRoy on the phone and in email. In the end, the answer, like its subject, remains enigmatic.

I asked to speak to Laura or Geoffrey, but my request was denied. “Astor and Speedie will not say that they are me,” s/he told me eventually. “We are a Von Trapp kind of family. We are a family and we create together in many, many ways, and that is our right. I reserve the right to grow and change my identity.” S/he spoke of JT as a kind of collective and mentioned Andy Warhol’s Factory. By the end of the interview, we were back on a less confrontational basis; s/he even suggested I could read at a “hoax reading” when my article came out. “I’m not sure hoax is exactly the word,” I said. “I think it’s more like a lifestyle.” S/he wondered if I’d seen Todd Solondz’s film Palindromes, in which the main character is played by seven different actresses and one actor. “I love Palindromes,” s/he said. “That is ideal to me.” S/he said, “I would like for this to be a door for other people to get heard.” On that point, at least, we had come to agreement.

Keith

Keith

Hooker, OK
August 2002

OCT 12, 2005 07:32 PM

Who is the fake JT LeRoy? I've never heard of this before.

big_trouble

big_trouble

Plymouth, MI
OLD SKOOL

OCT 12, 2005 08:30 PM

This whole thing has always been fascinating and creepy at the same time. Part of me wanted to call bullshit and the other half wanted to believe.

The part of me that wants to call bullshit on this is currently gloating to the side that wanted to believe. It's not pretty.

AndersWolleck

AndersWolleck

Astoria, NY
February 2003

OCT 12, 2005 08:44 PM

sounds like horseshit

hes a real person, who is nutty

LizFitts

LizFitts

USA
May 2003

OCT 12, 2005 09:50 PM

If he's NOT for real, someone's got a lot of explaining to do for the Schizophrenic Crackwhore Mother Anti-Defamation Society........

So sorry.........so lame.

Edited to add, the journalism in the New York magazine story is really well done.

[Edited on Oct 13, 2005 by mrsMF]

Cigarette

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH
April 2004

OCT 12, 2005 10:28 PM

I hear his next book will include a Jandek sampler.

Fredantes

Fredantes

Long Beach, CA
June 2004

OCT 12, 2005 11:01 PM

I already saw JT Leroy - it's true he always wears a wig, a hat, big sunglasses and has a weird voice...so you get the feeling that it could be anybody "acting". But he's also supposed to be the father of Asia Argento's kid.. so it's doubtful he's a chick..I think he's just a social freak who needs to hide behing his disguise.

Keith

Keith

Hooker, OK
August 2002

OCT 12, 2005 11:07 PM

Fredantes said:
I already saw JT Leroy - it's true he always wears a wig, a hat, big sunglasses and has a weird voice...so you get the feeling that it could be anybody "acting". But he's also supposed to be the father of Asia Argento's kid.. so it's doubtful he's a chick..I think he's just a social freak who needs to hide behing his disguise.



You could have saved time by just typing "Hi. I didn't read the whole article."

tongue

googused

googused

Portland, OR
OLD SKOOL

OCT 12, 2005 11:12 PM

It's Thomas Pynchon in drag

xokatyxo

xokatyxo

United Kingdom
December 2004

OCT 12, 2005 11:29 PM

I've read the article and heard the rumours and, not to sound dismissive, but I've decided I don't really care if JT is "real".

Some of my favourite people are fictional. kiss

miguelitooooo

miguelitooooo

Portland, OR
July 2005

OCT 12, 2005 11:48 PM

i agree that i don't care if he's real or not, but if he is really just the work of some 40 year old writer, why toil for the goddamn 5 cents a word new york press back in the early '90s for several years before getting the novels and etc. going?

Lemonkid

Lemonkid

Canada
May 2003

OCT 13, 2005 10:27 AM

I hope he's real... otherwise I'll have to put him on the fictional crush list.

Manko

Manko

SUICIDEGIRL

United Kingdom

OCT 13, 2005 11:16 AM

if he's a hoax then I wanna be a part of it godammit!
I met JT and he's a totally fuckable darling in my book. Yet too kooky and awkward to be a decent hoax I figure.... A hoax should be appealing to mainstream, what's the point of a fake figure of an author who's so shy he gets other people do the reading of his work in launches and public presentations?

PointBlank

PointBlank

New York, NY
November 2004

OCT 13, 2005 11:40 AM

I've always thought the "JT Leroy" Phenomenon was something of a performance art piece. The writing itself, while decent, is certainly not great enough to garner the kind of celeb-fucking and adulation he or she has received.

And Manko, I'll answer your question: People love a good mystery.

Lemonkid

Lemonkid

Canada
May 2003

OCT 14, 2005 09:21 AM

PointBlank said:
I've always thought the "JT Leroy" Phenomenon was something of a performance art piece. The writing itself, while decent, is certainly not great enough to garner the kind of celeb-fucking and adulation he or she has received.

And Manko, I'll answer your question: People love a good mystery.



I thought both Leroy's books were fantastic.

The_Reverend

The_Reverend

United Kingdom
September 2004

OCT 14, 2005 09:29 AM

i like Leroy's writing, and he is certainly an intriguing character... but this is crazy! The plot thicks... like the chicken soup!

i don't know why, but i want to know the full story...

xokatyxo

xokatyxo

United Kingdom
December 2004

OCT 30, 2005 07:43 AM


Has anyone else listened to the commentary track he did with Jonathan Caouette and Gus Van Sant on the 'My Own Private Idaho' DVD? If you'd only ever spoken with JT on the phone you'd definitely be forgiven for thinking you were speaking to a woman.

That said, if you go to his website and click on the journal you'll find quite a few rebuffs to the article from quite a few people. Mick Rock, Shirley Manson, Mary Gaitskill...

Mack Friedman (author of Strapped for Cash: A History of American Hustler Culture and Setting the Lawn on Fire) makes an interesting point when he says (of Mr Beachy's article); "why didn't he bother to contact or quote JT's frequent collaborators, like Asia Argento, Bruce Benderson, or Gus Van Sant?"

Mmm-hmm.

Cigarette

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH
April 2004

OCT 30, 2005 07:46 AM

Clov said:
I hear his next book will include a Jandek sampler.


Oh come on, this is hilarious!

lamdalamdalamda

lamdalamdalamda

Chicago, IL
February 2003

OCT 30, 2005 07:50 AM

Clov said:

Clov said:
I hear his next book will include a Jandek sampler.


Oh come on, this is hilarious!


i definitely smiled...but jandek is REAL! he's appeared publicly a couple of times. what is this JT LeRoy?!?

[Edited on Oct 30, 2005 by lamdalamdalamda]