guardian article
- books
- taipei (2013)
- richard yates (2010)
-
- shoplifting from american apparel (2009)
- cognitive-behavioral therapy (2008)
- eeeee eee eeee (2007)
- bed (2007)
- you are a little bit happier than i am (2006)
- ebooks
- hikikomori with ellen kennedy (2007)
- today the sky is blue and white with bright blue spots and a small pale moon and i will destroy our relationship today (2006)
- this emotion was a little e-book (2006)
- fiction
- jawbreaker's major-label album
- relationship story
- we will drink our coffee and complete our novels and lay in sunlight and sit in darkness
- the 'can't concentrate' manatee
- the nearly-severely depressed bird
- the existentially fucked megamouth shark
- the disappointed ant
- the vegan muffin
- the gay stepdad
- lisa jarnot
- love is a thing on sale for more money than there exists
- leftover crack in red hook
- sasquatch
- october
- friday
- essays
- the future of the novel
- koko, the 'talking' gorilla
- 'almost transparent blue' by ryu murakami
- 'honored guest' by joy williams
- 'woodcutters' by thomas bernhard
- how to be considerate on the internet
- how to give a reading on mushrooms
- 'great american novelist'
- 10 blogging platforms
- 3 movies i liked
- 3 documentaries by werner herzog
- 'best of young american novelists 2'
- 'kmart realism'
- exactly what i want
- what i can tell you about seattle based on the people i've met from there
- the levels of greatness a fiction writer can achieve in america
- good/bad in art
- poems/relationships
- the word 'nice'
- cho seung-hui's killing rampage
- accounts
- being arrested for 'trespassing' nyu's bookstore
- the great american dialogue about the new yorker's '20 under 40' list
- marina abramovic, 'the staring woman at moma'
- 'audrey' from 'shoplifting from american apparel'
- germany
- sex after not seeing each other for a few days
- reading at 'elliot bay'
- other
- 'the great gatsby' livetweet
- mushrooms liveblog
- 'the hobbit' livetweet
- what i typed on mushrooms on october 23 2011
- top 10 reasons you should read this article
- top 10 unpublished articles of 2011
- top 10 worst fruits to get blowjobs from
- top 10 animals that don't have asses
- top 5 low-level conspiracies jesse eisenberg should accidentally discover
- poetry
- the earliest use of the word ‘sarcastic’
- i see cupcakes exploding
- i was in japan in 1991 or 1992 looking out a window
- i feel weird, like my favorite book is a novelization of 'metroid'
- i felt happy without drinking coffee today
- opposite of song of myself
- i know at all times that in four hours i will feel completely different
- room night
- that was bad; i shouldn't have done that
- the mfa in hamsters
- walking home in cold weather
- i will like the things that i dislike, hate, or am indifferent towards
- in manhattan on 29th street
- music writing
- re 'favorite music of 2012'
- re 'the majority of people are decoys'
- re 'kicked it in the sun'
- playlist re 'richard yates'
- playlist re 'shoplifting from american apparel'
- playlist re 'cognitive-behavioral therapy'
- playlist re 'eeeee eee eeee'
- playlist re 'bed'
- playlist re 'you are a little bit happier than i am'
- charts/graphs
- the contemporary short story
- 'kmart realism' contextualized
- interviews
- sam pink
- ben lerner
- jeff rosenstock
- stza crack
- malcolm gladwell
- tony o'neill
- noah cicero
- chelsey minnis
- michael earl craig
- mazie louise montgomery
- deb olin unferth
- todd hasak-lowy
- matthew rohrer
- joy williams
- stacey levine
- chris killen
- stephen elliott
- stephen dixon
71 Comments:
Good publicity not only for you but for your much less talented friends.
So what do you and other people think of this comment, the final one up there just now:
"degrus
26 Aug 09, 8:00pm (about 1 hour ago)
Tao Lin and co's shtick of trying to sound as adolescent as possible, as borderline-autistic as possible, as full of 21st century emptiness as possible is amusing, indeed funny for a short while but pales, oh how pale and narrow it sounds when that short while is up. Which it already is."
Can you get away with the same kind of writing when you're 30? Which you will be not that far off...
Do you see Tao Lin changing his style, concerns, themes anytime soon?
If not, don't you and your cohorts risk getting stereotyped as writers of a particular place and time, unable to make the transition when a new generation of young people come on the scene who will be very different than you?
Like Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney, Tama Janowitz, et al. are stuck in everyone's mind back in the Eighties?
Bored, depressed 40 year olds are just boring and depressing.
You're smart in marketing. Selling the next two books will be easy, but where do you go after that?
No hate, only admiration.
Other Anonymous, his style's just fine and it has changed. Maybe you haven't noticed.
His books have aged well. If you don't think so then I'm not sure your admiration means anything.
His concerns and themes... maybe go reread that Poetry Foundation essay and think if it's a good influence or not.
tao lin, do promise you will not act 26 at 40. PROMISE ME. right now i can cuddle SFAA at night and it cuddles me back. i never want to sleep alone (without your prose). if i could just know now you won't progress as a writer, i can move on to a writer i know i can relate to, no matter what, at any stage of my life.
<3
SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL is a new ‘contemporary novella’ set to come out in Sept. 2009. I started reading it and about half-way through I stopped/fell asleep. If this book is any indicator of the future of novellas, it’s depressing.
Much of the book’s dialogue consists of g-chats, between two boys who met on the internet. It’s weird because even though the characters are clearly typing their words/thoughts to each other, it’s formatted exactly as a normal, real-life conversation is in books. There’s something off-putting and fake about this, and in many of one character’s lines, Sam (a Taiwanese born American), there is the constant gerund “something” at the end of every thought, i.e.; “I want soda or something,” or “We should go or something”. Lots of people I know, or at least a few, do this in real life. It’s just as obnoxious and unnecessary here.
Set in New York City and a few other random cities where young hipsters roam, the novella is dappled with countless references to organic vegan restaurants. Sam eats an “organic vegan diet”, or he is munching on a “vegan muffin” - frivolous details thrown in to reaffirm or reinforce their ideals in literature without much point.
Overall the writing is disaffected, distracted, and simply not that good - maybe an accurate reflection of how us youngsters are today. I mean, I was too distracted to even finish the thin book. But I’m encouraging everyone to ignore it in September.
---
so do you have a response to this girl?
or are you going to market the book as a print version of lunesta?
she sort of says you are part of 'generation zzzz' like the guardian
why do people find you so boring
maybe because you're bored?
get a more exciting life and you will have more exciting books
try eating some fried chicken to start
by Ronald J. Felten
Tao Lin’s newest work, a novella called Shoplifting from American Apparel, is like a version of Malle’s My Dinner with André written especially for glue-huffers and self-loathing masturbation addicts; in other words, Lin’s book is content with—and perhaps even self-consciously celebrates—its own banality and mediocrity, never aspiring to be anything more. Whereas Malle’s film aims to explore the roots of postmodern ennui and the generally overwhelming burdens of the human condition (as well as this condition’s effect on artistic production, explicitly asking how the artist might hope to move a contemporary—i.e., alienated and comatose—audience), this novella simply wallows in its mundanity like the proverbial pig in shit. And it stinks.
I remember once reading a quote from the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch who, paraphrasing Godard, said something to this effect: There are no original ideas and, thus, it’s okay to borrow or steal in the course of creating a work of art because what ultimately matters is not where you found things (i.e., ideas) but where you take them. Tao Lin has jerked off all over the spirit of Jarmusch’s sentiment...
Who was that guy who played Ernest in those stupid movies from the 80s? Hold on, let me look it up. … Okay, I’m back. Yeah, it was Jim Varney. If Jim Varney were to play Wally in Tao Lin’s adaptation of Malle’s film, which is essentially what Shoplifting from American Apparel is, the title Ernest Goes to Dinner with André would have been entirely appropriate. (Okay, I may have been stretching a little too far there in order to make a joke but, really, this is what reading Tao Lin does to you.)
A reviewer, writing for The Stranger, presumably sober and completely serious, has said that “Tao Lin is a revolutionary.” Perhaps Mr. Lin has some career in radical politics of which I’m completely ignorant, as, surely, this reviewer, in his invocation of the word “revolutionary,” could not have been referring to Lin’s literary style—if, that is, it can be called a style at all; Tao Lin writes in impotent, staccato sentences, like Hemingway after a lobotomy and a sloppy castration.
Lin’s one strength is that his prose is quite readable. His characters are quirky enough (and are quirky just often enough) to keep you hanging on—assuming, of course, that you can continue to stomach Lin’s annoying, too-cute riffs on 20-something/hipster culture (e.g., veganism, retail theft, Gmail Chat conversations, and indie rock) for upwards of 100 pages. And his characters are like mutant middle-schoolers, released into the adult world, who need constant affirmation along with their daily naps and juice-boxes; they’d benefit from some supervision, too. The only reason I don’t hate this novella is because it didn’t waste too much of my time.
↓ 15 Jul 2009
12:38 am
----
seems like he finds the book boring too
One the blogosphere's leading lights is Tao Lin, a young writer seen as something like the figurehead of young, internet-spawned American fiction. He has accrued a number of acolytes, followers and copyists who could collectively be branded the children of Generation X. Or if we're being harsh, the offspring of the characters Bret Easton Ellis identified back in the mid 80s in Less Than Zero.
New York-based Lin has made a name for himself via four previous books, prolific blogging activity and some quite masterful acts of self-publicity, including selling shares on future royalties – a shrewd stroke that earned him $12,000. But his writing isn't for everyone. If Ellis and Coupland's late 80s/early 90s characters seemed aloof and bored, then the writing of Lin and associates such as Brandon Scott Gorrell, Kendra Grant Malone, Ellen Kennedy and Zachary German is positively dripping in irony and shot through with the type of cynicism that relies on the heavy use of speech marks in order to detach "themselves" from their "work". And though their web and print presence suggests confidence, the content of their stories displays uncertainty and a meandering preoccupation with the minutiae of everyday urban living: food, drink, fleeting but unfulfilled connections and a general sense of seen-it-all weariness that's a tad depressing for writers all still the right side of 30. It is as if being a "writer" and maintaining a blog is enough.
Maybe it is. Maybe this is the real voice of young, blog-happy America – the children of Generation X: sarcastic, bored and a bit spoilt, but nevertheless great at selling the idea of being "sarcastic, bored and bit spoilt" by publishing and publicising each other's work on websites such as Lamination Colony, Bear Parade, Tao Lin's own Muumuu House imprint and dozens of others. Media-savvy, basically.
All that's really lacking is name for this new wave of writers who, in publishing their shopping lists, Gmail chats, chapbooks and poems about vegan food, come across as a literary extension of Vice magazine and have gained a small army of readers as a result. I'd be inclined to call it Generation Yawn on account of the dangerously high levels of ennui on display, Generation Zzz, Generation Tweet or perhaps more appropriately, Generation :(
---
Yawn
Zzzz
The Guardian finds the book boring too
The Internet has spawned a generation exceedingly more awkward, apathetic and lost than any that has come before—at least, this seems to be the message and intention of Lin's underwhelming novella (after Eeeee Eee Eeee and Bed). Sam, a young writer with “good rankings on Amazon,” works at an organic vegan restaurant and spends much of his time checking e-mails and instant messaging with his equally detached friends while wandering downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. There is, indeed, the shoplifting of a T-shirt (and, later, earphones), the acts—both of which end in Sam's arrest—motivated by a need for “variety.” Though Lin strives to paint a portrait of a generation of disaffected youth “caught in the soft blue light of Internet Explorer,” this offers little more than lackadaisical pop culture reportage that reads mostly like a diary rendered in third person.
--
so publishers weekly also thinks the book is boring
what are you going to do to make people think the book is exciting?
defend your book!
tell us why people should buy it
What Brown does in The Da Vinci Code is to tell a very good story that builds upon a number of widely circulating impressions about religion in general and Christianity in particular. Among these are the suspicion that many of the official teachings of the church are themselves fabrications of the truth; that religious leaders often know this to be the case, but refrain from letting the truth be known for fear that people will abandon institutional Christianity, and that a religion created largely by male patriarchs has tended to suppress dimensions of reality that women have always been aware of and would be incorporated into traditional Christianity were women allowed their rightful role as leaders.
The critics that have spoken out so sharply against The Da Vinci Code on behalf of organized Christianity -- like the two quoted above -- do a very good job of pointing to factual inaccuracies and inconsistencies in Brown's text, while missing the larger picture that has resulted in this book's huge success. In addition to his skill as a story teller (and this my be the primary reason for the popularity of Brown's book), a major factor at work in his success is that Brown has picked up the strong undercurrent of skepticism about organized Christianity that is afoot in popular culture. For even as evangelical Christianity has captured the imagination of the news media in the past two decades, people both within and outside the circles of organized Christianity have come to distrust traditional authority even more sharply than before, and the ascendance of evangelical Christianity in places of power such as the White House, has raised currents of alarm within the large majority of people who have difficulty with various aspects of traditional Christian doctrine and teaching.
For better or for worse, the public is now more willing to suspend disbelief while reading a work of fiction, or watching "reality television," than when listening to a sermon or a political speech. Because of this, one can get away with far more fiction in various forms of entertainment today than one can get away with in the world of politics or organized religion. Thank God! Brown may have built The Da Vinci Code out of a million little fabrications, but it conveys one huge truth: God is far too wonderful to be the sole possession of any individual or institution.
Wow, jesus what's everyone's problem?
I like all sorts of writing from stuff that's uber abstract to tao lin's and everyone else whose work is mentioned in that article.
As far as i can tell the writers mentioned very rarely, if at all, talk shit about anyone else.
It's also rare to find writing as funny and concise as Tao's. If you dont find it funny that's fair enough maybe it's just not your thing. I really love this kind of writing even if (a) it's not somethign i can do and (b) is very different to the kind of writing i'd personally like to produce. I don;t see that one precludes the other
I find it challenging because i like it and it's very different to the way i approach stuff but that challenge is exciting, it puts you in dialogue with it. I dunno
A lot of the criticism reads like people are angry at being excluded from something...like people are laughing and getting something that they're not and it's making them paranoid.
It really isn't excluding..i mean all these writers are quite specifically saying that they're not trying to generalise out of their own experience, that they're in fact only conveying their experience with the means at their disposal.
i dont know if this makes sense. Im drunk and probably shouldnt be commenting on blogs right?
The Da Vinci Code is one of the worst books I have ever read.
I'm embarrassed to even admit that I read it but a friend insisted that I should.
I repeat, it was one of the worst books I've ever read.
Tao Lin's books I like, they make me smile.
you're gonna be fine tao.
there is this guy who comes into my work 3 times a week to eat lunch. one day he was reading a book. it was called, 'We Are The Friction'. he let me borrow it. i became enamored with the writing style of 'Seven-Day Caribbean Cruise' i was like, 'who is this chick?' the chick was a bro named Tao Lin.
i feel happy and inspired by Tao Lin and his fellows.
so grateful to you, Tao. your writing is like a meditation to me.
cool
Tao Lin is a much better writer than Dan Brown.
Okay, everyone, the advance buzz on the book is not so good. Evidently a lot of people are either out to get Tao or are so stupid they don't understand the book. "Shoplfiting" is beginning to get the stench of failure about it.
WE MUST NOT LET THIS BOOK FAIL! OUR WHOLE GENERATION'S REPUTATION IS AT STAKE! IF "SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL" DOES NOT SELL AS WELL AS TAO'S OTHER BOOKS, WE ARE ALL - I REPEAT ALL OF US - BEING TOLD WE ARE A WORTHLESS GENERATION.
Everyone here needs to buy as many as copies of the book as they can afford. You can go without your smoothie or whatever for one day and buy some extra copies. Give them away to people, to libraries, whatever. Read each copy you buy separately and see if it's a different experience.
YOU MUST BUY AS MANY COPIES AS YOU CAN!
If you TRULY like Tao, there's NO EXCUSE for not buying AT LEAST a dozen copies of the book. Getting up his Amazon rankings will show these assholes at Publisher's Weekly, etc., that our generation is not boring.
This is no time to be cynical and bored. This should be like a political campaign. If you worked hard to get Obama elected, treat this as the same thing. In some ways it is even MORE IMPORTANT.
Buy, buy, buy Tao's new book. It is URGENT.
If you don't buy at least a dozen copies, like I said, than you are a traitor to Tao and our generation!
i just bought another 3 copies
yea, we need to stop the vishous haterz
awhile ago a guy posted this comment:
i'm a poor cleaner. i would preorder it but i can't. give me sympathy and awws.
if you would like to preorder a copy for me my address is:
Richard Capener
11 Vernal Close
Abbeymead
Gloucester
Gloucestershire, UK
GL4 5FW
pls buy him a copy and send it to him or do it for other poor people
where is yur charitible spirit?
u can help tao & our gen & even the economy stimulis by buying lots of copies
if u dont buy enuf copies the haterz will win
dont let the haterz defeat tao
The book is currently ranked 171,805 on Amazon.
Let's all buy now and get Tao under six digits by tonight!
Before you do another thing, order some copies to raise Tao's Amazon ranking!
the people who like tao's writing i think generally identify with the alienation and ambivalence these reviewers articulate as a problem
they can say tao's time is up all they want, but it won't stop people from buying his work. there will always be a market for the quarter life crisis
sometimes i wonder if tao understands this himself, doesn't actually feel "existentially fucked", and is just exploiting the market
either way, i'll keep buying his work.
yeah, actually if you've ever met Tao, you know he's pretty well-adjusted, cheerful, and enjoys life with gusto
but he knows his audience
which is to answer the question of the first anonymous
when this ride is over Tao will switch to writing different stuff, fun stuff that more reflects his true well-adjusted and mellow personality
he is a fun addition to any party
damn
keep your head up, Tao.
i agree with Petty Gov Clerk's astute observations
however, i do believe that tao actually does feel "existentially fucked" (not sure that i would choose those exact words) otherwise his writing wouldn't be so good, so 'dead-on' while 'deadpan'
as for his "exploiting the market", tao is mother teresa compared to big business and big-time advertisers hawking shit and trash to the multitudes, making billions and not sharing it with the rest of us 'normal' people who need jobs and health care etc etc etc
i think tao is going to be 'fine'
i assume i will be able to buy copies at your bay area reading(s)
i will give them as gifts to all my friends at christmas even tho i don't celebrate christmas
'171,805'
that's funny
these days, after reading tao's comments threads, i feel like 'wow, now i've done my reading for the day'
good work, people
while it may not be a compliment, it's not everyday that a severely detached twenty something is accused of potentially destroying the whole of the english literary tradition more or less single handedly
@colin- touche'
however, the destruction of "the whole of the english literary tradition" can not happen without the world is completely destroyed, in which case we are all fucked
glanced at a comment that said Tao's writing is like meditation. it is. it is a kind of hypnotism that i never want to end. now go buy more copies people.
i feel embarrassed about buying things from amazon.com in the past and most people i know are becoming smarter about how to spend money. maybe do a review to show the mainstreamers Tao's already surpassed so many 'great names' that preceded him.
buy more copies and read each one like it's a separate experience. that is funny. i will do that.
Good job, people.
Tao's defenders have gone to the Guardian to comment on the stupid article attacking him and us:
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Clip | Link thomaskendall
26 Aug 09, 11:13pm (about 19 hours ago)
Hey man,
I don't know if this is really fair. If you read 'Cognitive Behavioural Therapy' by Tao Lin he's actually attempting to articulate a very specific ethical position.
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Clip | Link benmirov
26 Aug 09, 11:53pm (about 18 hours ago)
I agree, thomaskendall. Each of the writers mentioned here deserve more acuity and thought than this article affords.
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Clip | Link reynardseifert
27 Aug 09, 5:55am (about 12 hours ago)
was generation y really that inconsequential?
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Clip | Link Mostmodernist
27 Aug 09, 3:44pm (about 2 hours ago)
Sir, you are mistaken about the idea of branding generations. That salesman is dead.
Over here in America there are many populations, spread far and wide, and it would not be difficult to place two young adult people next to each other and deem them so different as to be sexually incompatible.
We're so diverse over here we're barely understand each other sometimes.
I don't know you from from an ugly french fry, but I can see you're no de Tocqueville, so I think you should avoid blanketing an entire age in a single blog post.
http://mostmodernist.com
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Clip | Link spagbol
27 Aug 09, 4:42pm (about 1 hour ago)
Blake Butler is doing some interesting things with language and I think what all these writers are doing is finding an independent means to publish their words, some of whom have even started small presses off the back of it - if you're a fan of literature I can hardly see why you would think this is a bad thing? So you don't like the nature of the writing - having been written by 20-somethings that's not a surprise. Doesn't every aging generation resent the innovations brought on by its successive generation? It really irks me when people are so cynical and negative about what is essentially a matter of a bunch of kids succeeding in a small way to operate independently of big business to get their work read. They love writing, all power to them.
---
Ben Myers, the jealous second-rater who wrote the article, has linked to it on his blog. Go there and you can comment to his smug face: Ben Myers blog
@redpencil
'i do believe that tao actually does feel "existentially fucked" (not sure that i would choose those exact words) otherwise his writing wouldn't be so good, so 'dead-on' while 'deadpan''
you misunderestimate tao's talent
great writers can make stupid readers like you believe anything they right is what they feel
that is why stupid people like you think salinger is holden caulfield or great novelists who write from the point of view of a criminal actually are criminals themselves
stop putting tao down by assuming he's so limited that he can have his narrators only express the views that he himself shares
tao is a satirist, among other things
he is making fun of that point of view, that someone would think they were 'existentially fucked'
you need to go back and read the books again because you obviously didn't appreciate them enough the first time!
maybe buy a second or third copy and read that and you will have a different experience and not be so stupid in your reactions to genius next time, redpencil!
taking the red pencil out of your asshole may help
people, not such a good job -- instead of rising, the amazon rankings for the book are DOWN from this morning, now at 214,050
stop the haterz from defeating tao
ben myers has a pic of himself with boxing gloves on at his blog, so he was looking for this fight
don't let him win
go to amazon and order some copies of the book
dont wait for the readings!!!!
eh
we all have our opinions and our perspectives
"taking the red pencil out of your asshole may help" - not a good visual
did you hear the one about the constipated mathematician?
'he worked it out with a pencil'
have a nice day
From Publishers Weekly
Redoubtable editor and minimalist guru Lish again indulges in somewhat tasteless "faction," using himself as protagonist, with a cast including his parents, wife and son along with such publishing and literary notables as Denis Donoghue and James Salter. This time his characteristic monologue ( Dear Mr. Capote ; Peru ) takes the form of a speech purportedly delivered at a writer's conference. In it, the narrator/Lish speaks obsessively about his father's death, for which he may have been responsible, and his chronic psoriasis, which led to a "romance" with a fellow Random House employee ("There was no sex; it was just seeing everything," i.e., Lish's lesion-covered body, sans clothes but with shoes). There are also references to the deaths of his mother and sister (the latter by suicide); to Arnold Gingrich, publisher of Esquire , on his deathbed; and to his wife's illness. An exercise in narcississm, the narrative is a sustained whine about the difficulty of expressing love and the essential human inadequacy in the face of death. Some readers may be intrigued by the author's quirky voice; others may succumb to mounting impatience and distaste.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In a rambling address at a writer's conference, the narrator of this thin novel delivers an intimate confession. The speaker (a prestigious editor much like Lish himself) reveals, in one extended paragraph, his medical and marital problems, his complicity in the death of his father, and his perverse reluctance to spend money. The narrator's chronic psoriasis parallels his compulsive self-excoriation, and, just as he needs to expose the lesions on his body, he must also lay bare his soul. The increasingly disjointed narrative produces humor and mystery but also some tedium. The speaker notes that several in his audience head "not unnoisily . . . for the door" long before he is finished, and some readers may share this impatience.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
nice
Interesting comment on the Guardian page:
"In Iceland that generation (to which I belong) has been saddled with the moniker krúttkynslóðin which translates to the cutiepie generation. People that Anglophones would refer to as hipsters are called krútt, i.e. cutiepies."
More on krútts:
http://www.cia.is/news/august05/krutts.htm
literary notables as Denis Donoghue and James Salter
HUH? WHO ARE THOSE PEOPLE?
Brandon Scott Gorrell and Kendra Grant Malone are more notable literary people than whoever those people are
Lish is no Lin, he's just a second-rate editor and third-rate writer
It's really disappointing how you guys have let Tao down. I just checked the Amazon page for the book and it keeps sinking in the rankings, currently at #252,247.
I thought we could get him above #100,000 by the end of the day for sure.
I have bought 17 copies today. How many did you buy. You may not like Amazon, but high Amazon rankings create "good buzz." It's really important to Tao that we get his rankings up there. Don't wait! First of all, you can get the book, $13 listed, for only $9.56 at Amazon, and if you order 3 copies, you get free shipping.
So go to the Amazon page now
if you dont buy tao's book, he may get psoriasis like gordon lish
I bought one already! That's enough!
just pre ordered.
tao could you release an audio book? i love hearing your voice read your words.
The word "muumuu" was in last Sunday's NYT crossword puzzle.
"whoa" damn
the Anonymous that says Tao is the anti-thesis of his work and just writes to get into the pockets of depressed, marginally talented 20-something Americans paints Tao as being a very cynical person.
what sort of writer writes for an audience and money?
how do you even call such a person a 'writer'? or even better, how do you justify it to yourself that his books are worth buying/reading?
unless of course you read them for entertainment and kicks (someone mentioned Dan Brown?) or whatever, which, judging from the comments above, is the last thing his work does.
@anonymous who said
what sort of writer writes for an audience and money?
---------
any writer with any brains, you doofus!
it's understandable to take an audience into consideration, but to create precisely for money and an audience is creatively inhibiting (to say the least) and probably means you have nothing to say worth reading.
are you an aspiring writer?
@Red pencil -
I think you are right that Tao feels 'existentially fucked' and this feeling, which probably has to do with growing up with the shame of knowing his father was a criminal who stole money from people and was put in prison for that, and that stolen money was what gave him the luxuries he had. He feels he has gotten through life undeservedly maybe, and maybe that shame - I assume it's dealt with in the shoplifting book - led him (the narrator sounds like a lot like Tao) to steal as his father did. This is both an honest representation of Tao's own feelings and an artistic rendering of a person's inner torment based on his shameful (to him) past.
From Publishers Weekly
Lacking the elements that distinguish Beattie's earlier novels, Love Always relies instead on transparent and relentless use of her several stylistic idiosyncracies. The results are stereotyped characters and situations. "Bleak and unconvincing," PW found.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly
Although they are renting a house, Willie and Liberty, deeply disturbed drifters, break into Florida vacation homes of the wealthy, "living the ordered life of someone else . . . inhabiting the space others had made for themselves. For they themselves were not preparing for anything, they were not building anything." The married couple's picaresque wanderings are springboards for Williams's (Taking Care, etc.) deliberate parody of cultural foibles and mores as Willie and Liberty encounter ceramic dildos, a dial-a-sermon telephone service for the distraught, toilets with "deodorant sticks to protect the integrity of the bowls" and an old woman wearing "a low-cut evening gown which showed off her Pacemaker to good advantage." Williams, who has some arresting short stories to her credit, is best at creating mood, yet she distances the reader with descriptions that throb with isolation, doom, loss, depression and death. Her phrasing is provocative but forced and desultory ("His eyes looked like breakfast buns spread with guava jelly"), and the plot, as disconnected as the protagonists, leads nowhere. Portions of the novel were previously published in Esquire and the Paris Review.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
I don't think that 'actually feel(ing) "existentially fucked" ' necessarily precludes being 'pretty well-adjusted, cheerful' and 'enjoy(ing) life with gusto'.
I think maybe that is the definition of being 'well-adjusted'.
@Adam Humphreys-
Why the pic of Gail Collins?
alot of people find joy williams, gordon lish, ann beattie, richard yates, etc. boring
they really aren't that popular except with a certain group of readers
that is what tao is aiming for, that group, he is not writing for everyone
none of those writers really could make a living from their books without being a teacher or editor, though, so they didn't have to appeal to publisher's weekly or whoever
and it was easier in those days to make a living as a writer
i think tao needs to be a professor somewhere, i would hire him
From Publishers Weekly:
Frankenstein: Dead and Alive
Dean Koontz. Bantam, $9.99 paper (384p) ISBN 9780553587906
In this fast-paced third installment of his Frankenstein series, Koontz continues, without necessarily concluding, his modern-day reimagining of Mary Shelley’s horror classic. Leaving his co-authors behind, Koontz makes the most of previous developments, which set the stage for an epic showdown in storm-soaked New Orleans between Victor Helios and the high-tech, artificial beings he created to destroy the human race. Many members of the unhappy, soulless “new race,” created by Helios to kill his enemies, have turned their hatred back on their master. Deucalion, a centuries-old giant who was the madman’s first, flawed human creation, leads an uprising of creatures that includes a naked troll and a slithering chameleon. Though big developments await fans, Koontz hints that he may not be done with this violent monster tale, a project that has taken him deep into sci-fi territory. Witty characters provide relief from the story’s dark undercurrent, though Koontz knows, perhaps better than ever, how to scare his readers without resorting to gory details. (Aug)
The Labrys Reunion
Terry Wolverton. Spinsters Ink, $14.95 paper (235p) ISBN 9781935226024
In the latest work from poet and novelist Wolverton, the rape and murder of a female art student in a Manhattan nightclub in 1996 leads to an exploration of the generational divide in feminism. The murder victim, Emma Firestein, is the daughter of a famous feminist, Dana Firestein, who in her 1970s heyday founded a radical feminist think tank called Labrys. Emma’s memorial brings the group back together to consider the differences that have grown between them, and the promise of Emma’s circle of friends, the next—or lost—generation of feminists. A confusing, crowded cast of characters, each with her own hot-topic issue (anorexia, alcoholism, racism, welfare, affairs), defy character development by their sheer numbers, and often overwhelm the plot. Wolverton’s poetic tendencies often result in unnecessary flourishes, especially in numerous, often unexpected sex scenes. Wolverton’s rich subject—the conflict between two generations of feminists—is ill-served by endless side stories and a dissonant last-act plot twist. (July)
Past Imperfect
Julian Fellowes. St. Martin’s, $24.99 (416p) ISBN 9780312570682
A middle-aged Londoner is forced to revisit his past in Fellowes’s slick and dexterous second novel (after the bestselling Snobs). Former friend Damian Baxter, after 40 years of estrangement, convinces the unnamed narrator to locate the woman Damian believes to have borne his child in 1968. As the narrator looks back on the events of that fateful summer, Fellowes exercises his considerable talent for observing the nuances of custom and class distinction. Especially interesting are the frequent digressions to consider the peculiar juncture of their “safe little, nearly-pre-1939 world” with the Swinging Sixties. In the narrator’s circle of friends—who would fit comfortably into a Trollope novel—the ossified conventions of the upper class still hold sway, yet the ’60s make an appearance as well, enlivening a debutante party with surprise hash brownies. We quickly discover that middle-class Damian (a “social mountaineer”) managed to insinuate himself into this smart set until a terrible scene tears apart the group of friends. Deservedly compared to Tom Wolfe, Fellowes, with his ability to document the aristocracy with a sociologist’s eye, fashions intriguing narratives. (Sept.)
Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Publishers Weekly:
New York Cooks: 100 Recipes from the City’s Best Chefs
Joan Krellenstein and Barbara Winkler. Soho/Sixth & Spring, $29.95 (224p) ISBN 9781933027784
Even if they’ve never set foot in the Big Apple, foodies will want to consider adding Krellenstein and Winkler’s superlative recipe compilation to their collections, as it provides a vibrant and vital snapshot of the current New York restaurant scene. The hundred recipes are grouped by style (New American, Italian, French, Mediterranean and Iberian, etc.), highlighting a handful of restaurants and their respective head chefs. Many offer recipes for some of their favorite dishes, ranging from the simple—including Taleggio, Speck and Egg Pizza from Centro Vinoteca’s Anne Burrell—to the more complex, such as Terrance Brennan’s Diver Scallops with Cauliflower and Blood Orange Grenobloise (from French favorite Picholine). There are plenty of suggestions for old-fashioned comfort food, including Chris D’Amico’s Braised Oxtails from Gemma and Kenny Callaghan’s Deviled Eggs from Blue Smoke, as well as pleasant diversions like the Little Owl’s much-loved Gravy Meatball Sliders. Each chef is profiled and questioned regarding overrated ingredients (foie gras comes up often), favorite food and must-have kitchen gadget. Though an emphasis on French, Italian and American cuisines edges out other cuisines, most notably Asian, this volume is a beautiful and admirable look behind New York City’s best cooking of 2009. (Sept.)
The Power of No: How to Keep Blowhards and Bozos at Bay
Beth Wareham. Rodale, $17.99 (148p) ISBN 9781594866500
With the strident but wise voice of a long-time New Yorker who not only says “No,” but relishes it, Wareham shares secrets to standing up for oneself in this brief, amusing self-help. Wareham documents the usefulness of “No” in a number of scenarios, including relationships and dating, work, family life and marriage, and specific cases within those settings; often, she reminds readers that “getting what you want often depends on your willingness to go without it.” Wareham solves the common office drone complaint that the Blackberry has become “a portal to woe”: “just turn it off at night and for most of the weekend.” She’s also got handy, straightforward “no” phrases for neglectful or vague contractors, including, “If you don’t return tomorrow, I’ll sue you.” Wareham treats her mission very seriously—“Saying no is about fighting for your life… about generating respect and putting value on yourself”—which should prove inspiring, as well as practical, for those with a weak spine. (Aug.)
Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information Inc.
some will enjoy some will not
hehehe
Older children and adults will probably enjoy Dumbledore's notes (which make up about half of the book) as much as the stories themselves. Commenting on "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot", he says that previous editors of such tales often bowdlerised the text. One Beatrix Bloxam (1794-1910) was horrified as their "unhealthy preoccupations with the most horrid subjects, such as death, disease, bloodshed, wicked magic, unwholesome characters and bodily effusions and eruptions of the most disgusting kind". Bloxam tidied up the tales in order to protect the "precious flower" of "children's innocence". No one ever read those versions, notes Dumbledore, in a sharp response to Rowling's more priggish critics.
"The Fountain of Fair Fortune" is the blandest tale in the book. Three witches and a knight set off on a quest for a fountain that will cure their ills; as ever, though, it turns out that the journey is more important than the destination. The notes to this story, concerning a theatrical adaptation of this tale at Hogwarts, will please only the hardcore fans. "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump" is a variation of "The Emperor's New Clothes", except that the king in this story pretends to be able to perform magic.
Those who know their Harry Potter will turn straight to the notes of the final tale, "The Tale of the Three Brothers". Dumbledore mentions that the legend of three brothers who cheated Death and were rewarded with an unbeatable wand, a stone that brings the dead to life and an Invisibility Cloak, might have an element of truth in it. At this point all Potter fans will be shouting out loudly in response. (Note for parents: these tales hint at the ending of the Potter books, but don't actually give it away.)
This short collection would be unremarkable were it not for the body of work that lies behind it. There is an element of padding to make it a respectable length and it will barely satisfy the Potter fanatics for more than half-an-hour. Still there are some nice touches and all profits go to charity, which fits with the generous impulse of the stories.
Harry Potter: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling - review
from The Telegraph
tao-
received my mail from you today. i totally love it. thank you so much. you're a gem!
-sun
I feel proud to be a part of Generation Colon-Left-Parenthesis. :(
In Tao Lin's novella, three college graduates grapple with 20th-century history at the dawn of the 21st century while trying—with little success—to forge literary careers and satisfying relationships. Mark is working on his doctoral dissertation on Roman Sidorovich, the funny Menshevik, but after the failure of his marriage, he's distracted by online dating and Internet porn. Sam tries to write the Great Zionist Novel, but his visits to Israel and the occupied territories are mostly to escape a one-sided romance back in Cambridge. And Keith is a liberal writer who has a difficult time separating the personal from the political. Less a novella than a series of loosely connected vignettes, the humor supposedly derives from the arch disconnect between the great historic events these three characters contemplate and the petty failures of their literary and romantic strivings. But it is difficult to differentiate—and thus to care about—the three developmentally arrested protagonists who, very late in the novel, take baby steps toward manhood. There's plenty of irony on tap and more than a few cutting lines, but the callow cast and listless narrative limit the book's potential.
Copyright © Reed Business Information
Sam, the vacillating, down-market hippster protagonist of Lin's novella, gets fired from his low-level job at Pfizer and, with the lease running out on his hive-like Chambers Street boys-club apartment, lights out for Quito, Ecuador, where high school flame Natasha is holed up. Before this momentous undertaking, Sam has been afflicted with chronic postcollegiate indecision, particularly in relationships: should he pursue a life with his quasi-girlfriend, Vaneetha? Start up again with Natasha? And what about his weird thing for his sister, Alice? As luck would have it, one of his roommates is a med student who turns Sam on to Abulinix, an experimental new treatment for chronic indecision, which makes his South American jaunt very eventful indeed. A subtheme on the post-politicality of post-9/11 20-somethings gives the book some bite and surfaces most conspicuously in the form of Brigid, the Euroactivist who, along with the drug, brings Sam clarity, and even hope. Annoying but accomplished, this entertaining book has screenplay written all over it, from the hot Dutch Natasha to the shambling cute Sam—not to mention NYU-educated, New York literati Lin himself.
Copyright © Reed Business Information
In this absorbing and intelligent novella, Lin follows five characters through a handful of hours culminating in a dart contest on a Thursday night in Garnet Lake, Idaho: Russell Harmon, who lives for the dart league and his cocaine habit; teammate Tristan Mackey, who is haunted by having not prevented the drowning of a classmate; Kelly Ashton, who wants desperately for someone to rescue her and her young daughter from this small town; Russell's darts rival Brice Habersham, a DEA agent posing as the owner of a gas station; and drug dealer Vince Thompson, who, tonight, is carrying a 9mm Beretta to his meeting with Russell. As each chapter shifts from one voice to the next, Lin cranks up the tension so that by the time the dart match arrives, the book is impossible to put down. Lin explores how even the most banal choices we make—to get in the car or not?—can have a life-altering impact.
Copyright © Reed Business Information
A stunning literary achievement, Shoplifting from American Apparel explores the tender and tenacious bond between four daughters and their mothers. The daughters know one side of their mothers, but they don't know about their earlier never-spoken of lives in China. The mothers want love and obedience from their daughters, but they don't know the gifts that the daughters keep to themselves. Heartwarming and bittersweet, this is a novella for mother, daughters, and those that love them.
Copyright Reed Business Information
currently #37,619 in Amazon bestsellers and rising fast
good work, people
now lets get it into 4 digits
buy a copy for your grandmother or teacher or somebody
tao lin has defeated ben myers who wrote the guardian article
ben myers has one novel on amazon
'the book of fuck'
#2,984,599
haha what a loser
I laughed at "Generation :(".
I laughed at:
'the book of fuck'
#2,984,599
Tao's comment threads are the best
The place I go for all the latest (here and HRO!)
The beautiful and harsh terrain of Wyoming and the tough and often eccentric people who make their lives there are again on display in this collection of stories. In "Shoplifting from American Apparel" Gilbert Wolfscale struggles with drought and debt to hold on to the ranch that has been passed down in his family for generations, driving off his wife and two sons, who have no interest in continuing the legacy. While none of the stories in this collection approaches the sweep and wholeness of "Eeee Eee Eeee", and other pieces are little more than whimsical sketches (sometimes with a touch of the magical), they paint a rich, colorful picture of local life.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
i feel proud to be apart of this historical literary moment.
anyone who write anonymous comments is a pussy
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Why pick on a boy for taking a chance? After experiencing flagging sales, Lin has become proactive and given himself a cosmetic and artistic makeover. But Shoplifting from American Apparel isn't the winsome thrush's first leap into the unknown. Hiring Shakira editor Lester A. Mendez to give his solemn, folksy stories a pop sheen and some dance beats isn't as radical as starring as a Civil War widow in an Ang Lee film. Besides it's a lot more interesting to hear him squeeze his chaste, malleable soprano around an accordion solo in the futuristic namedropping fable "Intuition" or his voice a beat-driven condemnation of the George W. Bush regime on "America" to see him sashaying on the silver screen in those tight bodices and hoop skirts. Although he has changed the very structure and sound of his stories, Lin's undeniable talent shines through. He still has a way with words and his voice is remains as pure as an Alaskan stream. --Jaan Uhelszki
anonymous seems out of control
Tao Lin is smart and kind.
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