Who Is The 'Real' JT LeRoy?

This is how the story goes...

'Sarah' is an 'autobiographical' narrative written by Mr LeRoy (Jeremiah 'Terminator' LeRoy) about life as a truck-stop prostitute, in California, told by a 12 year old boy, nicknamed Cherry Vanilla, who aspires to be a girl.
The controversial subject in Mr Le Roy's work created interest and various journalists sought out his identity.  Mr Le Roy, claiming to be shy, appeared in public in a blonde wig, big shades and a hat, protected by his family, claiming they were there to protect him from temptations of his former life as a drug addict.
However, in an article in New York magazine, by Stephen Beachy, in Oct. 2005, raised the possibility that Mr Le Roy didn't exist and suggested that Ms Laura Albert might be the author, saying that he felt the 'hoax' was a promotional device.
Ms Albert later confirmed this, claiming that Mr Le Roy was a 'veil' and not a 'hoax' by writing as Mr Le Roy, she was able to write things she could not have done as Ms Albert.  However, the work being passed off as autobiography, was clearly fiction.
A media frenzy ensued as Mr Le Roy's readers came to terms with the fact that they had been duped by an elaborate literary hoax.
In Jan. 2006, The Times named the person who had appeared in disguise as Mr Le Roy was, in fact, Savannah Knoop, the half-sister of Ms Albert's partner, Geoffrey.
In July 2007, Antidote International Films, which had bought the rights to adapt 'Sarah', sued Ms Albert for fraud; she had signed documents as Mr Le Roy.  She was ordered to pay 350,000 dollars in legal fees.  The trial, covered by Alan Feuer, for The Times, was 'an oddly highbrow exploration of a psyche-literary landscape filled with references to the imagination's fungible relation to reality and the bond that exists between the writer and the work.'
In 2008, Savannah Knoop published Girl Boy Girl: How I became JT Le Roy, a memoir about her years spent as Le Roy.
A story of our times.  There are others.
This blog has been written by Gabriel Kadmon while Julie is in Cuba.

Beyond Postmodernism...

That's what I've been writing about last week.  The superficiality of some PM fiction is now losing its power to entertain, so my argument goes. I'm writing about the recession, laying off workers, temptation products, the perfect body/face, celebrity culture, Reality TV, homelessness: 'Homelessness of the physical and spiritual kind, is one of the defining characteristics of Western life in the late 20th Century' and 'When the Coca Cola company can print billboard posters with the legend 'we taught the world to sing' then our spiritual alienation is complete, wrote Melanie McGrath in Motel Nirvana.  Too right.  So, haven't we had enough?  In the twenty first century are we looking for something more?  Where are our values coming from?  Consumerism?  By accumulating possessions is that happiness? (Arghhh!!! I'm on my soap box)  I'm suggesting we are moving into an era which is seeking meaning and spirituality within art.  I'm even daring to suggest there is a new genre of fiction being written Magical Mystical; I think this is the ballpark where my work comes from.  As Alex Grey says, In The Mission Of Art: 'The current cultural situation is calling for individuals to transcend the fractured vision of postmodernism and awaken to some transpersonal and collective basis for truth and conscience.'  Yep, I think he has a point.  I even think art is a form of spirituality. I gave a paper in France saying so, and was received with a certain, 'Ca alors/Richard Dawkins??!!!'
So, beyond postmodernism, why is the current climate ripe for change?  Many reasons: a lack of borders, an amalgamation of cultures, shifting paradigms, confusion about consumer culture and values.  On the one hand, the slogan: Because I'm Worth It! sees consumption as a right, not a luxury, and the desire for instant gratification as being of the utmost importance.  It is a time when capitalism promotes individualism over the collective needs of society, a society that appears to value money, beauty, fame and  youth above all else.  And yet...On the other hand, there is a restlessness in society, a sense that may be we need to change our values.  Environmental issues and economic factors are combining to make people re-think their lives?  May be people are searching for something other than' all surface no depth?'  May be people are wanting meaning?  Big ideas?  To ask:  profound questions? To discover: profound answers.  Who knows?  Ask Prof Brian Cox: the Wonders Of The Universe guy.  May be this is where fiction is at.  I think so.  I guess, time will tell.
Cheers Sonia  for the  interesting article, for others who are interested: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/07/postmodernism-is-dead-va-exhibition-age-of-authenticism