Letters to the Editor
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Aw poor thing
Who is Ayelet Waldma? An idiot? A privileged bastard with close acquaintance to an imposter? A reporter with no questions worth the asking? "Gee shucks who the mutha fucks are you" Gee shucks if you say so, then I guess your PTSD fantasy sans verification is a noteworthy part of this larger spectacle of bullshit and victimhood.
In a way I'm glad the establishment was duped. In a way I wish the establishment would swallow its own tongue.
I'm writing this as the raped and serially abused daughter of a dead coalminer who used machine guns and greyhound buses for grocery shopping. Fuck Salon and Laura Miller and Ayelet Waldman. You are dilletantes' hors d'oevres and nothing more. With your purple prose and dumbass high brow split foreheads, bleeding for acceptance, "Oh how JT Leroy with his trappings cleaned out my dirty ears!" The stories weren't that interesting without the context?" No they weren't. Only with a dalliant purple cock held to my head did the silly bitch imposter convince me.
I knew JT Leroy was a fake, but I kept it zipped, because I'm a brave jouralist.
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Paperback Writer
Why the double standard? JT LeRoy writes a few good stories, markets them as fiction, then deals with the ensuing celebrity as best he/she can. Result: A campaign begins on Amazon to malign the books and their author's name is dragged through the gutter. James Frey writes a "memoir" that embellishes the facts, markets it as truth, and gets an endorsement from America's wealthiest TV host. Result: He winds up with the best-selling "non-fiction" book on Amazon, not to mention nightly media exposure and a national forum on Larry King. Who's the victim here? We are left to wonder what might have happened had Oprah taken up JT's cause and Shirley Manson had written a song about Frey-- Cherry lips and all.
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I suppose you hated David Bowie when you figured out he didn't really come from Mars.
As a writer, it might pain me to think that literary fiction has little hope of maintaining itself as a medum, but it's not exactly a new development. Film, television, and radio have driven quite a few nails into the coffin, and the advent of creative nonfiction's popularity adds yet another layer of impossibility for authors hoping to publish. You see universities across the country adding creative nonfiction degree programs daily. That's just what's in demand.
So, ethics aside, it doesn't seem very odd that someone would take either the Frey route of publishing something as a memoir when it isn't, or of constructing a very elaborate false front; a name dropping cult of personality to stimulate fiction sales and give the work some added credibility.
I never thought I'd find myself defending either of these authors, but what seems most unfortunate about this whole thing is not their misleading of readers, but the way a fickle reading public is tossing out babies with bath water. You read the book? You liked it? Your life was somehow forever altered? Then it was a good book, which requires a good writer. If a film inspires you, do you walk out of the theater and quickly force yourself to come back down to earth because it wasn't a documentary? No, probably not. And if you are the sort of person who does that, you should probablly take into consideration that a documentary is essentially a work of fiction. A documentary or a piece of "creative nonfiction" is an individual's interpretation of events. So is fiction. So is the face you present to the faces that you meet.
What really makes the JT Leroy situation so different from George Sand or the Bronte sisters (quality of work aside)? People have hidden their true identities behind pen names and false identities for centuries.
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I was Conned By Theresa Heacock Seattle, WA
Theresa Heacock is a con artist in Seattle, WA. She cons hair salons to get expensive hairccuts, and steals "friends" clothes so she can fit in to a higher class of people. The police can't do anything, because every time she cons, it is for under $1000. Someone should start a list of these people on-line, so they won't continue hurting people. She sneakily became my friend and then conned me. I won't go into detail, but she often "forgot her wallet" at crutial situations, with many people/businesses. She even hangs out with stars like Krist Novoselic, and Anisa Romero by joing yoga with them...and befriending them. Beware of her, because she is smart, and her cons could get much worse.
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I was conned by Theresa Heacock too!
Theresa Heacock is a menace. She pretends to be a publicist and preys on small business owners. And she's really good at it! I've met half a dozen people she's scammed and I know there are probably hundreds more. She's especially fond of scamming services out of people who provide services, like masseuses and aestheticians.
Go to http://www.metrokc.gov/kcscc and look her up for a list of the people who actually took legal action against her (still probably only a small fraction of the people she conned).
If she approaches you, run as fast as you can the other direction!