Interesting.

[liadnan]

A proper post (or rather, several) will come later, but in the meantime I was interested to see that Popbitch contributors seem to be suggesting that the well known, and in my opinion brilliant, Belle De Jour, Diary of a London Call Girl, (syndicated livejournal feeds here and here but neither of them work properly) may not be all that it seems, and may in fact be written by a "well known young British author". (Picked up from The Scary Duck, itself well worth reading, livejournal syndication here: I haven't got around to reading my popbitch email yet. Note that only about 5% of what is said on Popbitch is true...)

Does it matter? If true, is this the start of a trend? We shall see.

Comments

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

It's good writing. And even if it is a real actual person the writing is self-aware enough, and stylised enough, to make it not-complete-fact.

[susumu.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't put it outside the realms of possibility, but considering the game wasn't up when she won the Guardian blog award at the end of last year my vote goes for legit, albeit quite fictionalised.

I do kind of regret not writing JF as a real 'blog' rather than an episodic story now though.

hm...

[nikandra.livejournal.com]

I didn't have time to check it yet, but I still don't see what the problem is if it's just a piece of fiction. I was thinking about it a bit on my way home (boring drive, but no delays) and, if it's written by some writer and not a real call-girl, then it's a very good post-modern joke that taps into one of the most basic qualities of literature: make-believe. And if the deceptions is as good as to make people believe they have an original document rather than a literary work in from of them, then, that's even better. After all, you find similar attempts in Borges' work, Eco is playing with the same idea in the introduction of the Name of the Rose and, to use an example from a different medium, the Blair Witch Project was advertised as a true documentary (in fact, a friend of mine believed for years that it was real).

And if it's really the diary of a call-girl and not a work of fiction, then Popbitch's reaction revelas more about the people reacting than about the diary itself.

(lol - it really got me thinking, as you can see!)