/lit/ - Literature

>>3769228
That's funny.
I don't know the context but I'm guessing he's making fun of updike and MFA programs. The halfassed plagiarism is a blunt disrespect for academic approach to writing classes, an emphasis formulaic, commercial numbing. I read that short story in a highschool creative writing class. I can't speak much for college level course but I'm going to assume there tend to be a taste towards the conservative, realist and sincere. I remember finding the story funny when I read it, and giving it to someone saying I wrote it, or pretending to submit it in a college application, sounds like something I would've done.

It's obviously not a genuine attempt at plagiarism, the short is well-known, I'd consider it a subversion of the idea of plagiarism and copyright being a serious issue, mocking Updike's close relationship to the commercial industry as an irrelevant "underground" writer, similar to Negativland's relationship with U2.

I don't think it's a very deep conceptual gesture, I think it's funny, it's a witty little joke coming from a deviant sense of humor coming from a certain viewpoint. It's vaguely political, vaguely commenting on the college writing classes, the culture industry and artistic ideas of copyright, but in a half-assed, impulsive way similar to him naming a character in his novel after a celebrity, which could easily be seen as triviliazing the idea of a celebrity as he has trivialized John Updike.

Also
That someone found that and linked it to prove Tao Lin can write well too is funny, too, imo. It shows you completely misunderstand both tao and updike, you've got them all distorted and mixed up in a very flailing way, revolving around a poor taste, a poor exposure to writing, an inability to recognize nuances in style or perspective, wrapped up in a naive confidence that you can see when he is "writing better", that you're an authority on prose or tao.