Journalistism

I haven’t had much time for long form articles this year but in cleaning off a drive I came across two recent ones that, on rereading, I’m pretty impressed with.

Essay on Chuck Palahniuck’s Insane Fans

Anyone who’s known me for at least a few years knows that I have an  interest/love/struggle with fan cultures.  I took this assignment for the sole reason that I would be able to immerse myself in a rabid fan base. It was also a great opportunity to  ask questions about what constitutes the rarefied state known as  literature and what negates it for some critics. Chuck, as I say in the article, was a  super nice guy. Up there with the other “nice famous people I’ve met in a work context,” like Henry Rollins, and David Hasselhoff.

Interview With a Woman Playing A Boy Playing An Author

Oh boy. Just trying to summarize the JT Leroy story is harder than sorting out a cold war-era CIA cock up. I can say Knoop’s account is flawed and self serving all I want, but I’m not sure there’s any other mode of discourse for someone party to a fraud.  That I come down on that alone is my own unfair flaw in piece. If I had the room I really would have brought examples of media processes that create entities like “JT Leroy.”  To wit, her tell-all should have had more heat around it but for the media, self-critique is something akin to an autoimmune disorder.