Am I the only one who appreciates JT Leroy and James Frey a hell of a lot more now that it’s become clear that they’re both complete and total frauds ? (I wish it had occurred to me to reinvent myself as a fictional 14 year-old male prostitute with AIDS in order to sell a book, instead of as a fictional, somewhat overweight, Midwestern dad with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.)
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Mark, all we need to do is write some fiction and sumbit it as non-fiction.
Perhaps we can adapt the script of Greatest American Hero where instead of a suit with alien powers you find an American flag G-string with alien powers.
I tried to sell a novel as a 14 year old male prostitute with psoriasis and it went absolutely nowhere.
I’m not surprised you appreciate them more now. You’ve always had a soft spot for scams, lies and frauds as long as you weren’t the target.
You’re probably jealous that no major news organizations did a story on your false claim to have never met Dick Cheney’s Extended Taint before you had dinner with him in late November.
Of course, now you cannot do a post condemning a politician or public figure for lying without calling into question your credibility, which was already harmed by your false claims that you would stop blogging and that subsequent posts are not posts because you say they aren’t.
Since I had never heard of either of these guys I wasn’t all that upset about the deceptions. The more I read about Frey though the more I wonder, as he says that embellishment in memoirs is normal. HUH???? I guess I don’t understand the concept of a memoir. I can’t wait to write mine and talk about all the times I appeared on stage with Peter Murphy.
About JTLeroy, I thought – dang, smart people involved there.
Good point, Matt. I would certainly agree with you that Mark saying that he dined with a taint is on par with the President lying to the American people about the case for war in Iraq. Except, of course, for the fact that everyone (except you) knew that Mark was kidding, and that the Taint “lie” didn’t lead to anyone dying or the destabilization of the world as we know it.
I can live with people not believing me when it comes to matters regarding Taints, Matt. I don’t think that should make me any less trustworthy on other matters though.
Mark, you’re not trustworthy, at least not 100%, that’s the point I was making.
Theodore, it’s all matter of degree. But I guess I’ve grown less tolerant of Mark’s shenanigans over the years. I’ve never been able to casually lie as much as the average American. I think I went to church too much as a child.
Also over the years I’ve had to come to the realization that I can’t say anything personal to Mark without having to specifically say don’t publish this in your blog or magazine, and sometimes even that doesn’t work. That’s irritating, and probably fills me with bitterness even before I post anything.
Furthermore Mark made the ludicrous claim that he wouldn’t blog again in December. I had to call him on that because it was so transparently false, although in a friendlier manner.
If the rest of the readers here prefer to only hear Mark’s lies rather than the truth of a matter, I’ll refrain from commenting unless the lie directly affects me.
I heard a snippet of Oprah defending Frey on the Larry King show. She said something to the effect of it not mattering if what he wrote was true or not. What mattered is if it made a difference in people lives.
Hmmmm… I suppose several people in the Bush admin. could use this line of reasoning as well. Hey maybe Oprah should run for president. The old white guy establishment wouldn’t know what hit them.
If I’m not mistaken, I believe Oprah said something very similar about my post where I said I dined with a family of Taints.
to my great pride, i denounced frey as a fraud to my writing class more than two seeks ago. some members had just read it and were very impressed, but the discrepancies were extremely obvious. example–drug addicts do NOT have to undergo dental procedures without novocain! novocain acts as a nerve block only; has no systemic effect and does not trigger jonesing. it is not a narcotic and his claim that because he was an addict he could not use it is total bullshit. there! that felt good getting it off my chest.
oops! two seeks? wtf? i meant two weeks.
Two Sikhs
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2004/04/14/15SIKH_A,0.jpg