Letters to the Editor
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Absolutely hilarious...
Not the article, which was just all right. No, what's great has been 83 letters worth (so far) of people bragging about their moral superiority over Ayelet Waldman.
Now, I'm one of the ones who DO know who JT Leroy is. I actually gagged my way through one of his/her books once, even. (It was utter shit, by the way.) What I didn't know was who Ayelet Waldman is, because I'm a newish subscriber and I've never read her stuff before. And now, after reading pages of vitriol directed against her, I'm still not sure who exactly she is, but I know one thing: I like her a lot. 'Cause when the mere fact that someone exists is enough to make a lot of douchebags prattle on about how much better they are than she is, that to me is someone I'd like to know more about.
I've never before heard of cultural cluelessness used as proof of someone's moral superiority, although many have done so here today. But seriously, how can anyone who has read a book in the last five years NOT have heard of this JT Leroy asshole? At the very least, that New York magazine story was everywhere a few months ago! Or is it that if it hasn't been on Oprah's Book Club, you haven't read it, or what?
For the record, I always thought "JT Leroy" was a dead ringer for Steven McDonald, the bass player for Redd Kross, and for a few minutes after the New York article, I wondered if maybe McDonald was the stand-in. (Given Redd Kross' fondness for put-ons back in the day, and Albert and Knoops' indie rock affiliations, it wasn't completely off-base.) So so much for that "Come on, how could anyone this that was a guy" jive.