<![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview - Gawker Comments]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> "No distinction between good writers and pathological liars." Wow. Because everyone who expresses themself in writing is somehow akin to this crazy girl? Please. Writing is a form of expression and art. If some people use it for deception, self-denial, and to satisfy their warped egos, that's something else inside of that person that's coming out in the writing. Any other job or activity could be abused in the same way- as an outlet for something that's not right, not real, and not true. By the way, GoodGod, you seem to have somewhat of a knack for putting words together yourself.....

ThelmaCabango

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @dotorg greg: Bloods have blogs, but Crips have clogs.

Sasquatch

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> I met crazy Meg while at U of O -- and a good friend supervised her at Starbucks, where fellow co-workers called her a "whack job," always (at that time) carrying on about her Native American roots. Apparently she preferred to channel her "ghetto black roots" for fodder for a fake memoir. As an editor myself, I would've fact-checked 2 simple statements made by whatever-her-name-really-is: 1. her degree and scholarship from U of O (both non-existent) 2. the "Eugene ghetto" where she currently resides (again, non-existent, unless you consider a homeless man peeing in the bushes to constitute a "ghetto"; that was the biggest crime I ever witnessed in that neighborhood). She's always been a liar, which could've been revealed with a few simple phone calls. OH, and she used to have a fluffy white dog, so switching to a pitbull is another part of the farce -- and a fitting metaphor.

angiedsm

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> tree08 ..you may have met her, but I knew her, or so I thought, for close to 10 years....and it has been that long she has been making up the stories...I still choose to believe this was not profit driven...I don't know why she did it but the girl I knew did nothing but try to help people. Must be a mental health issue and a personal crisis out of control. It is very sad.

rocked

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> bloods really don't use stand alone c's when they talk or c's at all when they write--at least she did her research, unlike gawker.

ohorsebrown

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> I met her. The story presented on paper was the one she presented to the community she chose to live in. Her publishers weren't the only ones she lied to for teh last three or four years.

tree08

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> I just don't have the words. If only I could make some up.

haunts

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Sarah McGrath deserves no sympathy in this sordid matter. Her father, once the editor of the New York Times Book Review, and still holding down a lofty postion at the paper (he wrote the paper's main story about Norman Mailer's death, for example), apparently arranged for Ms. Seltzer's book to receive favorable treatment, including both a rave review and a lengthy feature article about "Margaret Jones" in the paper's House and Home section. The South Central LA gang culture isn't exactly a fresh topic these days, so for a book like this by a first time author to get that kind of coverage is unusual, to say the least. Incidentally, didn't it occur to anyone that neither the Bloods nor the Crips are known for an interracial cast w/r/t their membership? Has any white person ever been a member, much less a very short, pre-pubescent white girl? And if such a person had been a member, wouldn't someone have noticed that about 20 years ago, and wouldn't there have been newspaper or television news stories about it?

FairfaxJ

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Just how retarded do you have to be to not do basic due diligence on an author? How about making a phone call or two? The editor deserves to lose her job for being incompetent.

wtfomgwhatisthatabout

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @CumaeanSibyl:
I share your theory. In addition to the dishonesty, this is troubling because this slumming, opportunistic poseur was perpetuating the same old stereotypes about poor black people.

The only hero here was the author's older sister.

Seeräuber Jenny

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> McGrath worked on the book for THREE YEARS without meeting the author? That's just stupid, yo. A face-to-face with Ms. Seltzer would have stopped this charade in about five hot seconds. What a bonehead move.

bugupit

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> god the interview IS hilarious. the whole premise is ridiculous. call the wayans brothers 'cause we're gonna make a picture. starring martin lawrence as "Big Mom".

saltwatertaffy

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @germane: nice breakdown of the situation. This is the type of girl that gets off on shocking mommy and daddy. I wouldn't be surprised if she flirted with Buddhism, radical anarchists, and had major crush on Donnie Walbergh when he was in New Kids on the Block.

IronSheik

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Reading that interview reminded me of the classic "Rolling with my homies" scene from "Clueless." I could see Seltzer saying it with just about as much street cred.

cassandra

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Something no one here has pointed out is that there is a very small market for literary fiction. People do not buy literary fiction. People buy gritty memoirs. There is a bigger market for non-fiction. So getting your writing published as fiction even if you are good is very hard. Getting your so-so memoir (even if it is all lies) is easier.

But that said I would like to punch this chick in the throat.

alcloxa

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> I listened to this woman being interviewed this past Friday. The first thought I had about her was 'This lady is full of ****.' But then I thought to myself 'If someone from NPR is interviewing her, she must have something valuable to say.' I regret that I did not go with my instincts. I wasted an hour listening to her non-sense. One caller seemed to question her authenticity, although I will have to listen to the interview again to recall what he asked.

sataylo

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @rubyruby: People who submit fiction as fake memoirs are afraid that they don't write well enough to succeed in the fiction world. If you bill it as a memoir, folks will cut you a lot of slack on the quality of the writing because your bad English is "authentic" and your implausible story is "poignant" and "intensely personal" and all that crap.

I don't think James Frey could've gotten published as a fiction author. I doubt Margaret Seltzer could have either. Even The DaVinci Code might've disappeared quietly into the remainder bins without that whole "it might be true, really!" business -- it worked better as a conspiracy theory than as a novel.

CumaeanSibyl

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> It's excellent that you're going after her ridiculousness and inaccuracies; however, she actually got this part right,

"Bloods smoke bigarettes not cigarettes."

Some gang members actually refuse to say "C" and "B" depending on the gangs they are in (or at least they used to). For instance, "brazy" for "crazy".

If you're interested in seeing that in action, you can check it out in gang documentaries like "Gang Wars", "Slob 187/Crab 187", and the album where Bloods & Crips bang on wax. It was really popular during the 90s.

I think she probably actually read some gang books and tried her best to pick up AAVE (African American Vernacular English), but she's still dispicable.

msenglish

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @vulturesquadron: I agree with you. Who care's if she's nice? And why is it a valid excuse that she is middle class? I guarantee there is another editor out there who, middle class or not, is not afraid to talk to poor people. She probably shouldn't have been given the assignment.

lalalina

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Do you get the hometown tour video free with every book? What's the point of a video to accompany a book?

maevemealone

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> As someone who works in the heart of South Central LA (and as someone who has grown up in the LA area my whole life), I find this woman with such a lack of integrity that is beyond me. What I find most disturbing is that her whole fabricated memoir could've been simply labeled fiction and nobody would really care. Perhaps she missed a few literature classes at her posh private school and became confused as to what the definitions of memoir and fiction are? Memoir: real. Fiction: from the Land of Make Believe...

I feel like telling her, "Girl, do your research!"

Or just enroll yourself in a few creative writing classes and write about made up lives and scenarios all day if you like!

Gitanavasco

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> So..I'm unclear about which parts of her story, if any, are true. I mean she did have all these different people walking in and out of her house and she referred to them as gang members. Were they really, and if so how does she know them? Or could they not hear her, and they were actually just unsuspecting neighbors?

teapartys_over

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @donmiguel: I dunno, but if one of my siblings was telling the press/entire world that she was sexually abused and removed from the family home early in her life, I might want to set the record straight.

But kudos on the 'hoody "don't snitch" attitude!

thatgirlinnewyork

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @GoodGod: This is my comment of the week/month/year/our existences.

pufflehuff

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> So I guess I'll have to wait a few years to pitch my true account of being raised by schizophrenic, Robitussin-addicted Kyrgyzstani teenagers, getting my PhD at 15 and inventing the mp3.

tammyfey

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> I just want to point out that while Ms. McGrath might have felt unqualified to question the author's authenticity, it was her job to vet the woman's ID, no? How long can you work in this field without understanding that people lie? If you can't sense a scam, and you don't check facts, by what criteria do you judge the validity of a story? What's funny is that she got smoked by just another middle-class white girl who went to college. Surely she was qualified to vet that.

GollyG

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @MisterHippity: Got it. Not knowing a whole lot about publishing, that helps. Cheers.

rubyruby

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @MisterHippity: Hmm. I had a memoir rejected because it had "insufficient incidental dialogue". Apparently I was expected to have made up some.

trojanhorse

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @Hamud: Yeah! And she should have written of the magically instructive time that she spent a few days chained to a radiator by Samuel L. Jackson!

BettyCrocker

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> It's when we hit the details like the black-eyed peas and cornbread that the story truly rockets into "I Love Lucy" territory.

Seltzer's genius for the broadly comedic is such that you wonder why she didn't allow herself to really go with it and explore an even wider range of improvisational possibility...

Why, for example, wasn't Margaret involved in a shoot-out with the LAPD? Why didn't Big Mom ever hold Margaret to her ample bosom and croon "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"? Where is the crabby old black gentleman whose terse, brutal wisdom ushered Margaret to redemption?

Hamud Ibn Hamud

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @smithhimself: OK, yes I slammed you first thing in the AM. But you said: "People in publishing usually come from middle-class backgrounds and find it hard to challenge these kinds of statements from someone who sounds sincere."

It bothers me that either you don't understand that confronting liars is part of the job, or you don't think doing the job well is important. Being a nice person is utterly, completely irrelevant. You are either a professional, or you go home crying.

vulturesquadron

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Sorry, Friday's edition of On Point. Seriously, folks, if you think the faux gangsta speak is funny in print, wait until you hear her actually speak...yo.

PickleTitsTurner

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @smithhimself: I'm not sure how you can defend McGrath--an editor, even a brilliant one, who has lost objectivity is a failed editor. And after Frey, there is no excuse for this situation. None. It's demoralizing for anyone in the industry, as if we need more demoralizing.

annasballs

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Part of the issue is the age of most editors and critics. They're in their 40s and 50s, so they didn't grow up listening to rap and watching modern gangster movies. Anything that seems "gritty" and "street-wise" gets a free pass, no questions asked, because they want to remain relevant. This came into sharp focus for me after reading glowing reviews of the movie "8 Mile" and then actually seeing that amateurish, silly piece of shit.

Nard

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> I think that this scandal gets close to the point but not quite. The real scandal is not that memoirs are enhanced (as in James Frey) or complete fabrications (as in this sad tale); it's that in modern publishing the author's biography and persona have become crucial to a book's success. The JT Leroy debacle is a good example of this. The author wrote fiction but invented a nom de plume and backstory that was salacious and sympathetic. The resulting success was NOT because of the quality of the writing but rather because of the writer's story.

Sigerson

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @soybomb: never mind, i scrolled down. this is ridiculous!

debord at work

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> There are a lot of compelling books by relatively privileged white people about growing up poor and black in the inner city. Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is one, There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz is another. In fiction we have The Wire and The Corner, just for instance. These books and shows honor their subjects and help provide a voice for them, I would argue, without resorting to lies. ANL and AK, in fact, grasped that ruthless truth telling was the only path to creating successful and compelling narratives that honored their subjects.

Crotty

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> You want funny, go listen to her interview on yesterday's edition of On Point with Tom Ashbrook (WBUR). In light of these revelations it's hysterical. BTW: What happened to fiction? Are our imaginations so impoverished that we can't find be compelled by a piece unless it's "true" ? Seriously, Americanians, Ulysses wasn't "true." Hamlet didn't actually happen.

PickleTitsTurner

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> is this the same "inactive Blood" who was written up in the times last week?

debord at work

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> My hunch is that Margeret Seltzer is a smart, deeply insecure white girl from a well-to-do family who has never felt like she belonged enough and who has always felt trapped in that safe rich hollowness. She has had substance abuse problems and brushes with law enforcement which she draws on for her fabrications and which have made her feel more legit in identifying as an outsider. Hanging out with black kids from South Central, she convinces herself that she is passing and that she has found her "true" community.

In my opinion, this is more about self-delusion than lying, which is why I'm betting her sister got so frustrated and called her out.

germane

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @bigleggedwoman: Yeah, but not a lot, and it's not like "peeps" won't give you a cup of water now and then, especially if you promise them "first dibs" on the next batch of "rock-cocaine." (Or "rock-bobaine," as I think "da homiez" call it in "da hood.")

La Cieca

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @rubyruby: For the same reason James Frey didn't call his book fiction. It couldn't get accepted for publication it as fiction. It probably wasn't good enough.

People don't seem to get that fiction actually has to be superior in quality to the exact same material presented as fact (e.g., "memoir," "autobiography" or whatever). Tacky, middling-quality material can still come across as attractive and compelling to readers if it's presented as something that really happened. Why do you think books, movies and TV shows always display that "based on a true story" tag so prominently?

If she could have published this as fiction, I'm sure she would have. I'm guessing that (like Frey) she tried and failed, and that finally she (or somebody else) changed the "fiction" label to "memoir."

MisterHippity

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @vulturesquadron:

Gosh. What a pleasant way to start one's day -- to be called a liar or a fool. And I haven't even had my second cup of coffee.

I'm a working editor, VS. And I known the occasional strangeness that can go on between editor and writer.

Most of the time, it's business. But there are times, where you become emotionally invested in the person and the project. This is when you lose your objectivity.

smithhimself

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Word is Maureen Dowd mistook her for a Crip in the press room

blogylonian

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> LOLies!

BettyCrocker

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> I need to point out in the interest of accuracy that it TAKES WATER TO COOK ROCK.

Don't ask me how I know that.

bigleggedwoman

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> There are people with much more dramatic and interesting stories to tell who aren't telling them. They aren't telling them for one of two reasons.
1. They are true.
2. They cannot write.

You can write a memoir with either of the above qualifications and it's pretty obvious that it happens all the time. It's doubly sad, though, when neither of the criteria are there. Go ask Alice.

fuckermost

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> The Penguin site is down, btw.

hortense

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Why didn't she just call her book "fiction"? If it's so compelling then in theory it would have done just fine in that category. Why even bother with such obvious lies? Also, I love that it was her sister who tipped off her editor (at least according to the NYT article: [www.nytimes.com]).

rubyruby

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @donmiguel: I'm just waiting for the follow-up stories. Hopefully the papers that fawned over her book in reviews can now be bothered to do more than a single-source story and explain how such crap made it through everyone's (lack of) filters.

3cardkitty

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> And the kid -- is the kid hers, or is she some kind of weird stunt kid stand-in? Plus -- surely the sister and family knew the book was in the works before now -- why wait to out her -- was there some kickback not received? I'm just sayin' -- with all the cocaine talk, maybe this was about yayo. (Is that too Miami Vice?)

donmiguel

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Also, her pen name is Margaret Jones, not Jordan.

aisatsana

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Her profile in the Times is almost as bad. She's cooking black-eyed peas and corn bread when the reporter comes over, and got "a tattoo of a large, weeping pit bull across her back the day the state of Nevada set a close friend's execution date."

Does she really have that tattoo? That's impressive dedication to a lie.

aisatsana

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Ok, ok, lying is wrong, plus it feels good to see someone who actually GOT published eat crow. Fine. But really? Her sister Cyndi Hoffman is a gigantic bitch.

donmiguel

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Also, girl looks like an albino. She couldn't spring for some Coppertone?

MisterHippity

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @smithhimself: Uh huh. Well, she may be a hell of a person, and very kind, but it seems to me Sarah McGrath blew this one. As has been mentioned above: it's ONE phone call. Were there family members that could vouch for Ms. Seltzer? A social worker? A fellow gang member?

Yeah, people get duped, but in the age of Frey (et al), it's not much an excuse...

Ricky Roma

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> The "home girl" as two words thing really should have tipped people off sooner.

MisterHippity

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> The real struggling writers who live in South Central would like as much attention. Who'll publish their stories?

SarahHeartburn

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> In case Penguin pulls the interview (I guess it's really mostly a matter of when) -- here's the full text of it, y'all!

[www.scribd.com]

Sweden

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> OMG! It's Vanilla Ice all over again!

digyourownwhole

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> d'oh! breamed his jeans. why ban't I type straight?

dotorg greg

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> bigarettes?? I think William Safire just creamed his jeans.

Is it a coincidence that one of the top Google citations for bigarettes is from the school paper at Brown [note: actual B, not Bloods for Crown?]

Also, bigarettes only have 162 hits? Don't Bloods have blogs [again, actual B, not Mario Batali-style shoes. Wow, writing gang is hard!]

dotorg greg

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> she makes diablo cody seem erudite.

larrydarrell

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> *sigh* I wrote a memoir. It was rejected. Now I see why...it was true.

honeybee111

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Who says "homies" anymore? That's so old skool.

dinosaur_senior

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> @smithhimself: Your easy euphemisms for "failing at the job" intrigue me. Are you speaking from the liar's experience, or the gullible editors?

vulturesquadron

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> You can see it in her eyes. The dark and hollow, I'm living a lie with each and every 40oz I pour on the curb for my homies.

whymanwhy

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Something fishy about McGrath's account... Two names are listed in the author info: Peggy Seltzer and Margaret B. Jones. Which presumably means that both names are listed on the contract. So did McGrath work on the edit with Seltzer or Jones?

redhanded

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Ugh. It's still "rock cocaine" when white people do it. I thought we'd all agreed to call it crack? Jayzus, does she have Sorkin's PR?

raincoaster

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> There is no distinction between good writers and pathological liars. Creative writing is therapeutically prescribed for psychotics.

GoodGod

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Before the snarkfest begins on this, I'd like to say a few words in praise of Sarah McGrath -- a nice person and a good editor.

This kind of incident is every editor's bad dream. It could have happened to any of us. People in publishing usually come from middle-class backgrounds and find it hard to challenge these kinds of statements from someone who sounds sincere.

My best preparation for publishing was nothing that went on in college, but my two summers working as an orderly in a mental health facility.

smithhimself

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> Why do you find this "scandal" so fascinating? There are serial liars spouting horse shit on every street corner, and more than a handful in the White House.

TheBigDoggy

]]> <![CDATA[Fabricating Writer's Hilarious Interview]]> How is it that her ineptitude at switching back and forth between her "gangsta" speak and white-girl do-gooder language didn't tip anyone off (NY Times, LA Times, agent, publisher...I'm looking at all of you)? So awkward. Jesus people, one phone call would have busted her.

3cardkitty

]]>