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40-464: Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy , or simply JT LeRoy , is a literary persona created in the 1990s by American writer Laura Albert . LeRoy was presented as the author of three books of fiction, which were purportedly semi-autobiographical accounts by a teenage boy of his experiences of poverty, drug use, and emotional and sexual abuse in his childhood and adolescence from rural West Virginia to California. Albert wrote these works, and communicated with people in

80-507: A 2013 symposium with filmmaker J. J. Abrams and Doug Dorst in New York, actress and writer Lena Dunham said that LeRoy "co-opted my imagination for a full year of my life. [...] It was pretty remarkable. And then you also go, 'This person isn't who they claim to be, but they still wrote this book that captured all of our imaginations, so then why does the identity of the author even matter when you're reading fiction and engaging with it in

120-698: A cross between The Turn of the Screw and Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls . Robert Gluck said, "Stephen Beachy is a visionary. In these twin novellas, he explores madness and crime with the nocturnal lyricism of empty time and space." His novel boneyard, was published in 2011. It is a collaboration with a young Amish boy, Jake Yoder, whose existence is unconfirmed, and deals with the West Nickel Mines School shooting in Nickel Mines, PA. Beachy has said his influences for that work include

160-412: A document, known as persona profile, instead of an "activity of empathetic role-play". Stephen Beachy Stephen Beachy (born 1965) is an American writer. Beachy's parents are Mennonites and his paternal grandparents were Old Order Amish . His brother Tim Beachy is a member of the band Squidboy. Beachy is a second cousin of biologist Philip Beachy and historian Robert M. Beachy and also

200-447: A feature film of Sarah was null and void. A jury found against Albert in the sum of $ 116,500, holding that the use of the pseudonym to sign the film rights contract was fraudulent. Armistead Maupin 's 2000 novel The Night Listener features the case of Anthony Godby Johnson, which is similar to that of LeRoy. In 2013 filmmaker Michael Arias claimed LeRoy for his inspiration in translating Taiyo Matsumoto 's manga Sunny . At

240-402: A memoir, Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy , about their six-year career as an impersonator. Antidote International Films, Inc. , and its president Jeffrey Levy-Hinte announced plans for a film adaptation of Sarah to be directed by Steven Shainberg . According to The New York Times , when Shainberg "learned who had truly written Sarah an inspiration came to him to make a 'meta-film',

280-543: A person loses their identity to a persona, they become an archetypal figure. By losing their "ego", their persona becomes their personality in an archetypal form. However, when this occurs, the person becomes unstable and they are unable to act outside their formed persona. In literature , the term generally refers to a character established by an author, one in whose voice all or part of a narrative takes place. Poets such as Robert Browning , Ezra Pound , and T. S. Eliot are strongly associated with such narrative voices, as

320-530: A person rates themselves and how they present themselves in public. It is difficult to tell if people are accurately filling out the test or answering what they find desirable. In a study written by Danielle Jackson , she argues that a person's persona can range in healthiness. The more healthy a persona is, the more socially acceptable and consistent that person remains. However, once a person starts to believe they are their persona, it can have adverse effects on their personality. James Hillman believed that once

360-491: A persona. Some artists create various characters, especially if their career is long and they go through many changes over time. For example, David Bowie initially adopted a role as alien messenger Ziggy Stardust , and later as The Thin White Duke . More than just artistic pseudonyms , the personae are independent characters used in the artist's shows and albums (in this example, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and

400-846: A really personal way?'" That same year, Laura Albert told Interview , "You know, JT LeRoy does not exist. But he lives. That's what a famous film historian once said about Bugs Bunny ." In 2014 interviewer Dylan Samson on the LastLook App blog stated that "Albert had ingeniously hacked the literary establishment". In March 2014 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Academy of Friends Oscar Party in San Francisco invited JT LeRoy – played by gender fluid fashion model Rain Dove Dubilewski – to walk

440-784: A relative of biologist Roger N. Beachy . He attended the University of Iowa from 1983 to 1990, both as an undergrad and in the Iowa Writers' Workshop . As a student he traveled extensively in the US and Latin America , sometimes by motorcycle and sometimes hitchhiking, which influenced his first novel. His first novel, The Whistling Song, with cover illustrations by Curt Kirkwood , was published in 1991, and his second novel, Distortion, in 2000. Two novellas , Some Phantom and No Time Flat, were published in 2006 and have been described as

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480-519: A third-person narrative voice, generally taken to be more objective and impersonal. There are borderline cases, such as the “we” that occurs late in Edwin Arlington Robinson 's poem and functions something like a chorus in a Greek tragedy, but in general any identifiable narrator whose point of view or manner of speaking clearly distinguishes them from the author is considered a literary persona. In fan fiction and in online stories,

520-476: A triple-layered movie that would blend the novel with the lives of its real and purported authors in a project he took to calling Sarah Plus ." The New York Times also reported that this new project "required the rights to Laura Albert's story, rights that she in no uncertain terms refused to grant". In June 2007 Antidote sued Laura Albert for fraud, claiming that a contract signed by Albert in LeRoy's name to make

560-415: Is also listed as guest editor for Da Capo's Best Music Writing 2005 . Additionally, LeRoy was credited with liner notes and biographies for musicians Billy Corgan , Liz Phair , Conor Oberst , Ash , Bryan Adams , Marilyn Manson , Nancy Sinatra and Courtney Love and profiled award-winner Juergen Teller . Calling a suicide hotline in the 1990s, Albert reached Dr. Terrence Owens, a psychologist with

600-410: Is more commonly used to refer to the voice and performance nuances of a vocalist in a studio album or in a live concert. In online spaces where personae are more visible, musical personae can be created through the flexible and fluid virtual bodies of avatars. Usually, the performers assume a role that matches the music they sing on stage , though they may also be composers. Many performers make use of

640-574: Is not new at all. Writers have been protecting themselves in that way for centuries. Mary Shelley did it. Of course Laura took this practice further and I think that was very smart and I do not think she deserves the kind of condemnation that she got. If I had done the Roberta thing ten years later, I would have faced the same problems. The story of JT LeRoy was the subject of a 2018 feature film based on Savannah Knoop's memoir. Directed by Justin Kelly ,

680-625: Is the writer Luigi Pirandello . These writers understood the term slightly differently and derived its use and meaning from different traditions. Examples of Eliot's personae were " Prufrock " and Sweeney . Pound developed such characters as Cino , Bertran de Born , Propertius , and Mauberley in response to figures in Browning’s dramatic monologues. Whereas Eliot used "masks" to distance himself from aspects of modern life which he found degrading and repulsive, Pound's personae were often poets and could be considered in good part alter egos . For Pound,

720-641: The San Francisco Bay Guardian . In October, 2005, he published an article in New York Magazine , exposing the writer JT LeRoy as the concoction of a woman named Laura Albert , with the help of her family members. Beachy has been cited by scholar Daniel Shank Cruz as an important figure in Queer Mennonite literature . From 1995 to 1996, he taught for WritersCorps in San Francisco. Since 1999 Beachy has taught in

760-603: The Brothers Grimm , Agota Kristof , Kathy Acker , and the many multibiographies written by authors with multiple personality disorder . Beachy's fiction has also been published in BOMB , Chicago Review , Blithe House Quarterly , SHADE , and various anthologies. His nonfiction publications include an essay God's Radar Screen in the anthology Love, Castro Street . He has written literary and film criticism for

800-515: The Jungian psychology , the persona is also the mask or appearance one presents to the world. It may appear in dreams under various guises. People may choose to wear a social mask or use a persona to make themselves appear more socially desirable. This is used to impress potential partners or to make new friends. People can have multiple personas that they use in various situations; this can include work, being with friends, at home, etc. Depending on

840-404: The 1950s. It is a tool to become persons by constructing the conception of our role and connecting the inner conception to the outer world as individuals. Yet, the terminology of identity and personae has been applied loosely and both imply the impressions of self and social performances in their works. The word derives from Latin, where it originally referred to a theatrical mask . The usage of

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880-724: The 1990s, virtually no one had ever glimpsed the reclusive author. Then, in 2001, a person wearing a wig and sunglasses began appearing in public, claiming to be LeRoy. In August 2005, journalist John Nova Lomax published the article "Coal Miner Mother of a Mess" in the Houston Press , casting doubt on the particulars of LeRoy's story. Lomax recounted his frustrated attempts to contact LeRoy by e-mail, pointed out several obvious discrepancies of fact, and cast doubt on LeRoy's existence. A few months later, Stephen Beachy , in an October 2005 article in New York magazine, revealed that LeRoy

920-635: The 2016 documentary Author: The JT LeRoy Story . Albert explained the circumstances of LeRoy's existence in a 2006 interview in The Paris Review with Nathaniel Rich ; she described her troubled history and her alleged personal experiences with abuse, abandonment, sex work, gender identity, and her need, since childhood, to create alternate personae (chiefly over the telephone) as a psychological survival mechanism, through which she could articulate her own ideas and feelings. At her 2007 fraud trial, Albert described LeRoy as her "veil". Throughout

960-500: The McAuley Adolescent Psychiatric Program at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco. Owens did not know her as Laura Albert at the time, but as "Jeremiah" or "Terminator". Owens is credited with encouraging "Jeremiah" or "Terminator" to write during their phone therapy sessions. Albert also recorded conversations without Owens' consent, and these illegally recorded phone calls made their way into

1000-455: The Spiders from Mars and Station to Station ). However, in music, a persona does not always mean a change. Some authors have noted that Bob Dylan 's charisma is due largely to his almost stereotyped image, always with a harmonica , guitar , and with his distinctive hair, nasal voice, and clothing. The persona also serves to claim a right or to draw attention to a certain subject. That is

1040-399: The case of Marilyn Manson and his interest in death and morbidity , and Madonna and her interest in sexuality. Personas are used in marketing and advertising by creating a marketing persona that represents a group or segment of customers so that the company can focus its efforts. For example, online advertising agencies can monitor pictures, browsing history and the ads people surfing

1080-447: The film starred Laura Dern as Laura Albert and Kristen Stewart as Knoop. Documentaries about LeRoy include Author: The JT LeRoy Story (2016) directed by Jeff Feuerzeig , and The Cult of JT LeRoy (2015) directed by Marjorie Sturm. Literary persona Persona studies is an academic field developed by communication and media scholars. The term “persona” has been discussed by sociologists Robert Park and Erving Goffman in

1120-399: The genre framing changes. As a strategic formation of public identity in communities, musical personae describe how music moves through cultures. Persona maintains stability of performance with the expectation from the audience matching in musical presentation. The concept of persona can also be used to refer to an instrumentalist , like a pianist and their playing style, although the term

1160-429: The individual's circumstance, a persona which they consider stronger within their specific social situation can be created because they put a higher emphasis on social interactions. Jung warned about using personas too much, fearing that one might lose their own individuality to their persona. A study has shown that this can be true to an extent; when taking a private self-rating test, there is a high correlation between how

1200-649: The internet generally select or choose to click, and based on that data they tailor their merchandise to a targeted audience or better describe a customer segments using a data driven approach. Personas are also used in user experience design , known as user personas. Alan Cooper introduced personas in his book, The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (1998). Cooper play-acted fictitious characters in order to help solve design questions. These personas need to be based on user research and can also be described in narrative form. Creating personas has become synonymous with creating

1240-436: The latter Roman period changed to indicate a "character" of a theatrical performance or court of law , when it became apparent that different individuals could assume the same role and that legal attributes such as rights, powers, and duties followed the role. The same individuals as actors could play different roles, each with its own legal attributes, sometimes even in the same court appearance. According to Carl Jung and

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1280-406: The original text. Auslander argues that music is a primary social frame as a "principle of organization which govern events." In addition, he categorizes three types of personae transformation: lateral moves within the same frame at a given moment; movements from one frame to another; and within a single frame that changes over time and hypothesizes that personae transformation could only happen when

1320-440: The person posing as LeRoy in a wig and sunglasses for six years was 25-year-old Savannah Knoop , Geoffrey Knoop's sibling. In a subsequent article, St. John published details of an interview with Geoffrey Knoop, in which Knoop confirmed that LeRoy did not exist, and that his sibling was LeRoy's public face. Knoop also admitted to St. John that Laura Albert had written the works published as LeRoy's. In 2008, Savannah Knoop published

1360-472: The persona of LeRoy via phone and e-mail. Following the release of the first novel Sarah , Albert's sibling-in-law Savannah Knoop began to make public appearances as the supposed writer. The works attracted considerable literary and celebrity attention, and the authenticity of LeRoy has been a subject of debate, even as details of the creation came to light in the 2000s. Albert originally published as Terminator and later JT LeRoy . Work credited to LeRoy

1400-413: The personae were a way of working through a specific poetic problem. In this sense, the persona is a transparent mask, wearing the traits of two poets and responding to two situations, old and new, which are similar and overlapping. In literary analysis , any narrative voice that speaks in the first person and appears to define a particular character is often referred to as a persona. It is contrasted with

1440-433: The personas may especially reflect the authors' self-insertion . The concept of personae in music was introduced by Edward T. Cone in his The Composer's Voice (1974), which dealt with the relation between the lyrical self of a song's lyrics and its composer. Performance studies scholar Philip Auslander includes further contextual frames, in which musical persona is the primary product of musical performances apart from

1480-406: The runway as part of its HIV/AIDS fundraiser. As part of the artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson ’s 2014 exhibition "How To Disappear," she premiered her video The Ballad of JT LeRoy , examining Laura Albert's use of the literary persona JT LeRoy. Reflecting on the parallels between JT LeRoy and her own alter ego Roberta Breitmore, Hershman Leeson has commented: The concept of an alter ego

1520-582: The word dates back to the beginnings of Latin civilization. The Latin word derived from the Etruscan word " phersu ," with the same meaning, and that from the Greek πρόσωπον ( prosōpon ). It is the etymology of the word "person," or "parson" in French. Latin etymologists explain that persona comes from "per/sonare" as "the mask through which (per) resounds the voice (of the actor)." Its meaning in

1560-551: Was indeed a fictional creation, invented by writer Laura Albert, and that LeRoy's purported public appearances in wig and sunglasses were made by an actor. Beachy asserted that Albert had been posing as LeRoy's caretaker and spokesperson, calling herself "Speedie", under the false premise that LeRoy lived with Albert and her husband Geoffrey Knoop, who used the pseudonym "Astor". In January 2006, journalist Warren St. John revealed his finding in The New York Times that

1600-792: Was published in literary journals such as Francis Ford Coppola 's Zoetrope: All-Story , McSweeney's Quarterly Concern , Memorious , and Oxford American magazine's Seventh Annual Music Issue. LeRoy was listed as a contributing editor to BlackBook magazine, i-D and 7x7 magazines, and is credited with writing reviews, articles, and interviews for The New York Times , The Times of London, Spin , Film Comment , Filmmaker , Flaunt , Shout NY , Index Magazine , Interview , and Vogue , among others. LeRoy's work has also appeared in such anthologies as The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003 , MTV 's Lit Riffs , XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits , Nadav Kander 's Beauty's Nothing , and The Fourth Sex: Adolescent Extremes . LeRoy

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