JT Leroy = hoax

[Charming Tedious]

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/index.html

sort of fascinating and sort of maddening

i always thought his writing was crap

[heather marie]

i don't think it's crap, but i was telling someone the other day that i always read his writing as fiction, anyway. i mean, i told myself "this isn't real this isn't real this isn't real" because some of it just seemed too fucked up to be real. and that isn't to say that fucked up shit doesn't happen, it's just some coping mechanism that i tell myself because i'm a piece of shit who can't handle anything real, or something.

regardless, this is totally interesting and really weird, all in one.

[Matos_W.K.]

yeah, it's always seemed pretty obvious--the backstory was too good to be true.

[coldforge]

I'd never heard of this guy, but it all sounds pretty terrible.

[Maaik]

I thought I'd never heard of JT, then it occurred to me that I'd read "his" story "Stuff" in The Best American Non-Required Reading, 2003.  I liked it.

I don't really have an opinion regarding the obvious hoax other than the fact that reading about it creeped me out more than a little.  I'm not sure why.  It reminded me of the day I spent reading about Jandek after I'd first heard about him here.  Felt similarly creeped out then too.

[milly balgeary]

it seems okay and then it isn't. then you don't want to know anymore about it.