from eritrea to jt leroy

Last night I decided I want to go to Eritrea. I guess I am mainly attracted by the cappuccinos. But there is also the architecture, the people, and the Red Sea.

I’ve read up on it in a copy of Africa on a Shoestring. So far that is where I’ve gotten the most information on the relatively newly independent country. I was searching online today for more info but it was kind of few and far between and of course the US and UK are full of warnings. As always. Those websites still make Laos sound like one of the most dangerous countries you can visit.

It’s so stupidly frustrating when you’re looking for something and can find nothing.

Where I found a lack of information on Eritrea, I found loads of it on JT LeRoy.

JT (Jeremy ‘Terminator’) stunned the world with his first book Sarah (published in 2001) about a 12-year old boy who dresses up as a girl and becomes a bit of a truck stop whore. His stories tell of the kind of under-world we would rather not think about. Child prostitution, abuse, rape, drugs.

In 2002 The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things saw the light. Apparently it was written a couple of years before Sarah, but only published later. In 2002, JT was 22 years old. The book, consisting of short stories, tells the story of young Jeremiah who gets returned to his mother after 5 years with a foster family. Again it is pretty grim. It was turned into a movie starring amongst others Asia Argento and Marylin Manson.

I first became aware of LeRoy through his terribly boring contributions to i-D magazine about two years ago. His interviews ended up being more about himself than the interviewees.

I was intrigued by his story though and ordered The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. I found it amazingly well written and very mature, especially considering it was written by someone in his mid-teens. Not to discredit young writers, but this was very impressive stuff.

I realized his bad journalism was just a way to get attention for being such a very sad case. I mean, you should read his stories or watch the movie. Awful stuff.

Writing has paid of for JT. He became a huge celebrity and cult figure and could count Winona Ryder, Bono, Courtney Love, Gus van Sant, and Madonna as friends. Shirley Manson of Garbage wrote two songs about him, Cherry Lips and Bleed Like Me. Everybody wanted to befriend the brilliant writer who’s survived his horrible past and can write so beautifully about it!

JT seemed terribly shy. He did not often do photos and always appeared in public wearing a blond wig and dark sunglasses.

JT LeRoy

For good reasons it seems.

Early this year a friend mentioned to me that she read somewhere JT LeRoy does not really exist.

Today I finally came round to researching it a bit. And what fascinating information did I gather!
Last October the New York Times ran an article by novelist Stephen Beachy questioning the existence of JT LeRoy. Apparently Mr. Beachy was not buying the whole story pretty much from the start and did a whole lot of investigation. (You can read the article at http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/features/14718/)

The evidence was very circumstantial, yet it all seems to ring somewhat true. Later on various people came up with information proving that he’s statements were true.

It seems the writer of these books is Laura Alberts. Savannah Knoop, the half sister of Laura’s ex-partner Geoffrey Knoop, played the JT that sometimes appeared in public.

It’s intriguing stuff and there are quite a few similarities to another hoax from the 90’s. This one is about the book Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy’s Triumphant Story written by the boy himself, Anthony Godby Johnson. This tells the story of a boy who gets rescued from his abusive parents and is adopted by another couple. After the adoption they find out he has AIDS.

Today it is pretty clear that no such character existed and he was probably invented by his adoptive mother, Vicki Johnson. Not her real name by the way.

Many questions arise from this kind of hoax. Why did the person do it in the first place? Is the work still as good as originally thought?

I guess there is something wrong with the whole story. Making up a fake identity is one thing, but claiming that this person is flesh and blood and faking this person in public is something different.

But is it wrong?

Is it not what drag artists do all the time? Sure, after being on stage and performing you go back to your other identity, but still, while on stage you claim to be one person and most definitely not the other.

Pieter-Dirk Uys and Evita Bezuidenhout hate one another!

When I run to the video store and give my boyfriend’s last name when renting a DVD, do I not do the same? The people at the store think my name is Alex.

I was fooled by JT LeRoy. I bought it all. Same as millions of others. I’m not really bothered by it. In fact, power to JT. Whoever he/she is. A brilliant character.

Maybe these stories created some much needed awareness about the lives some youths the world over lives and maybe it did some good. One can only hope. Even though JT’s story was not his (her?) own, it is the story of many other children. JT just gave them more of a voice.

And made friends with Winona Ryder!