/lit/ - Literature

He's alright. I like his sense of humor, it's very dry but with a touch of whimsy and a good sense of the absurd. I'm with you, I don't understand the hate after reading him, but I also would not understand anyone claiming love of his work, either. It's like he's purposefully mediocre, an affected eschewing of ambition.

i pretty much agree with everything in the OP except that /lit/ hates him more because one time tao linked to a 4chan thread about himself on twitter; ever since then every tao lin thread is thought to be self-promotion

>>2791708

In England, The Independent said Eeeee Eee Eeee was "a wonderfully deadpan joke". I think I agree with that.

I also wish pic related was a dolphin, and not a shark, because I think it would capture rather nicely the feeling generated by that fourth "e" on the last "Eeee" of the title.

Those dolphins are some needy bastards. defenestration's too good for 'em.

>>2791713

There's also a lot of jealousy about a young writer who's effectively used the internet to promote themselves into a situation that the majority of /lit/ would kill to be in.

Also, his ex-wife was quite attractive, which induced the neckbeard rage of the 2/10

i've said before and i'll say again that if he used language in a way that was at all interesting or memorable he would be a great (like, great great) writer

instead he doesn't and so it's like a case study in how stupid bland sheetrock prose can sink incredibly fascinating ideas

>>2791735

>incredibly fascinating ideas

Which ideas do you mean? I also thought that his work could use more development, but I can't put my finger on why I think that.

>>2791751

like i think dude has some really interesting things to say about boredom and anxiety and how they're interrelated in contemproary society

but until he figures out how to write about boredom without being boring himself he's only halfway there

>>2791721
They're horrifying rapists, too. Stay out of their sea castles.

>>2791756

Fair point - I think he's almost the voice of a generation (a useless, prozacked, self-absorbed generation to be sure), but his style may not meet the necessaries. On the other hand, the same could be said of Fitzgerald (and critical reaction to Fitzgerald's work was equally mixed as to Tao's - Gatsby was out of print for more than 20 years).

He's been compared to Douglas Coupland, and I think it's a fair comparison - especially to Coupland's more recent work.

go the fuck to sleep Tao

>>2791763

[...] Don't be taken in by the
dolphins and their winning smiles, they are the pickpockets
of the ocean, the gypsy children of the open waters and
they are laughing all the way to Atlantis.
- Simon Armitage

>>2791775

from

>>2791693

>inb4 fuck off tao

Includes

>go the fuck to sleep Tao

by default.

So now by the most ancient laws of the internet, you have to GTFO.

Yeah I liked that one way more than RIchard Yates. You should stick to poetry though Tao, I think it's consistently better than your prose

"Richard Yates is hilarious, menacing, and hugely intelligent. Tao Lin is a Kafka for the iPhone generation. He has that most important gift: it’s impossible to imagine anyone else writing like he does and sounding authentic. Yet he has already spawned a huge school of Lin imitators. As precocious and prolific as he is, every book surpasses the last. Tao Lin may well be the most important writer under thirty working today."

- Clancy Martin

>>2791786
I FUCKING KNOW IT'S YOU

>>2791774
> I think he's almost the voice of a generation
Really? I'm honestly not sure what's worse; having him as our figurehead or trying to fathom how low society has sunk.

I urge you to look at one of those pics of him. Preferably either the one he posts of himself lounging around in pink shorts posing with toast, or the one of him posing in the supermarket. Just look at one of those pics and repeat 'the voice of a generation'. Then have a look at Hemingway, or Hunter S. Thompson, or Fitzgerald and return to Tao and look at those pictures again.

We don't need an autistic hipster kid as our voice, we need someone strong. Someone who can stand up to what is wrong with our generation and scrutinize our faults, not someone who actively embodies those faults. We need a voice who can speak on our behalf, who can actually address issues and make us consider new perspectives.

I know people like Tao Lin and Snooki are the 'voices of our generation' but we owe it to ourselves to pick better idols.

>>2791816

Tao Lin is the voice of nothing. No one fucking knows who Tao Lin is. He's been trying to sell himself on the 8 people who frequent this board for 2 years now, and he hasn't even achieved that.

>>2791807

AND I FUCKING KNOW YOU'RE WRONG.

White, English Catholic here.

Yorkshire born and yorkshire bred,
Strong in 't arm and thick in 't 'ead.

Until recently, I thought Taiwan was something you did before fly-fishing.

>>2791788
>Tao Lin
>good at poetry
NOPE.

Also Eeeee Eee Eeee and SFAA are Tao's only good releases. Bed is average.

You should check out Everything Noah Cicero, Sam Pink and Scott McClanahan have released.

You should read Kadian by Jordan Castro, but nothing before, he tried too hard to be Tao.

Do not read Ben Brooks or Megan Boyle.

Stay the fuck away from Steve Roggenbuck.

Pop serial is also killing the Alt-scene despite being the only real advocate of it.

>>2791735
That's the thing that bugged me about him, >>2791708
>It's like he's purposefully mediocre, an affected eschewing of ambition.
It's an affectation, you can tell he's stripping it down and making it bland, it's just a bizarre stylistic choice and I can never tell if he's dumbing-down or if he's just making it as toneless as possible or if he's even possibly parodying the process of dumbing-down, but it's just so garbled that I have a hard time simply accepting it as I read.

>>2791693
OP I agree with everything you said, except I don't think I'd go as far to say I liked it. Maybe 5/10, if anything. I guess I liked parts of it--at least, there were a few quotes that won't soon go out of my head.

Yes, he's "pretty punk," complete with that oh-so-punk childishness, a naive sense of the significance of insignificance, maybe.

If I met Tao Lin somewhere, I would gladly play a board game or watch a movie or have gay sex with him.

>>2791840
No, dont stick kettle on luv, ahm goin' up't shop t' get new arctic monkeys cd.

>>2791816

>Just look at one of those pics and repeat 'the voice of a generation'.

That was exactly my initial point. Look at the picture - it's you, almost all of you who are under 25. Your life is amusingly wacky facebook poses and facile statements designed to try to please each and every one of your 39,218 "friends" online. He's the poet laureate of gmail chat and skype and iPhones.


That's precisely why he's the voice of your generation.

>>2791831

You're clearly unaware of the critical response he's had in the wider world. I suggest you just fuck off before you embarass yourself.

>>2791848

>I would gladly play a board game or watch a movie or have gay sex with him.

I might buy him a beer, maybe some boardgames if things went well, but that's as far as I'm going.

I'd fuck Megan while he watched and sobbed though.

Actually, that would probably really get me off.

>>2791855

fuck off aaron sorkin

>>2791840
yaya, i know tao

pic related, the only good thing to come out of The North

>>2791693
I heard there was a Tao thread.
>>2791816
Not believing Tao to be the voice of our Generation, what are you, a fucking moron. no, no you aren't everyone knows Noah Cicero is the voice of our generation.

>>2791865

AHEM.
I BELIEVE THAT IN YOUR FOOLISHNESS-AH AND IGNORANCE
THAT YOU HAVE OVERLOOKED SOMEBODY-AH

>>2791855
>Look at the picture - it's you, almost all of you who are under 25. Your life is amusingly wacky facebook poses and facile statements designed to try to please each and every one of your 39,218 "friends" online.

*ahem..
"We don't need an autistic hipster kid as our voice, we need someone strong. Someone who can stand up to what is wrong with our generation and scrutinize our faults, not someone who actively embodies those faults. We need a voice who can speak on our behalf, who can actually address issues and make us consider new perspectives.


I know people like Tao Lin and Snooki are the 'voices of our generation' but we owe it to ourselves to pick better idols."

>Eeeeeeeeeeee

>>2791874

Last I heard, this tripcunt was scottish, so by this time of night, he'll be violently drunk and obnoxious.

>>2791882
Then read Noah Cicero. He's literally the Anti-Tao while keeping the outsider lit scene

>>2791876
Oh, thats right. You have mark e smith and ultravox, congratulations. Meanwhile i'm going to enjoy the sunshine tomorrow, while you smash the ice on top of the rivers flowing down your high streets.

>>2791882

>We don't need an autistic hipster kid as our voice, we need someone strong.

You get what you're given, and a generation of weak, autistic hipsters is probably well defined by Tao. You're the generation that opposes capitalism on Twitter and Facebook, with advertisements and specially targetted sidebars to sell you anti-mace Guy Fawkes gasmasks. You're the people who not only ensure that the revolution will be televised, it will be pay-per-view.

Tao Lin is you, you just don't want to collectively admit it.

>>2791898
Bingo.

>>2791876

WHERE ARE THE OBLIGATORY GMAIL CHATS

>>2791889
>Not spending sunday night with shitty cheap beer and alt-lit
I can't believe you plebs still aren't on my level. What have you been doing since I left?

>>2791897

Although I said I'm from Yorkshire (and Mark Smith is from Lancashire, anyway, but that's neither here nor there), like all good Yorkshiremen, I left as soon as I could to pollute sunnier climes and tell everyone how much better Yorkshiremen are than all other Englishmen. You'd be amazed how many foreigners believe that guff.

And yeah, I heard that the weather was a bit inclement back in dear old blighty: my cleaner told me, and I laughed and raised my glass in a hearty "fuck you all" to everyone who remains in the cold and the frost.

>>2791876
implying that old fucker deserves mention over a cute terrier
>mfw

>>2791898
I take it from that 'you're' that you are an older gentleman. We are the product of what you have created. We are your bastard child, conceived out of greed, opulence and and an acceptance of mediocrity.

Just so you are aware, there are a huge number of us that don't subscribe to the vapid culture of fb likes, tweets and reality tv.

>>2791906
Also, when did Castro stop sucking?

>>2791721
>defenestration

That's a new one for me. Nice. Not many words that are inherently hilarious.

>>2791916

That's another defining characteristic of your generation: you always have someone to blame, anyone but yourselves.

It's Generation X what done it to you, or it's the economic climate, or you're over-educated, or it's the muslims or whatever the fuck but IT'S NOT MY FAULT MY LIFE'S LIKE THIS is basically your generational mantra. Then you go ask your doctor for some pills because you're NOT HAPPY AND THAT'S NOT MY FAULT EITHER IT'S MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY.

This is what Tao is mining for his work - the diffused, inchoate rage, the impotent desire and the endless tedium of young intellectual people ("hipsters" if you like).

And he does a reasonably good job of it.

>>2791951

you_kids_get_off_my_lawn.wma

>>2791920
When his publisher came.

>>2791967
10/10

>>2791951
What are you talking about gramps? OK, say I do want someone to blame. Say I'm angry because my licence plate get photographed when i'm driving to college, I have targeted adverts thrust in my face, the average person likes to stay in and watch the celebrity dancing finale, etc etc... How is this my fault? Why are you having a go at me for being displeased with this situation and implying that it is my fault?

I don't buy in to it though. I have a group of friends who make fun of the normals. We go to warehouse parties and local bands, we search out what dwindling sincerity there is left amongst the embers. we camp out in forests for weekends taking mushrooms. We try to make the most of our shit situation and look forlornly at a fucked society.

Tao doesn't channel any of this, he embodies the worst aspects of our culture. He embraces the things that he should despise.

>>2791967
I like you bro

>The feel when he's supposed to be the "voice" of our generation yet most of our generation has never heard of him.

Seriously you mention this guy most people say what tao? Is that some buddhist monk or somethin?

>>2791984
This is pretty typical. I don't know who told you they were, but the Lost Generation were not instant successes that everyone adored and called the voice of their generation.

>>2791980
Wow, that's the most pretentious thing i've ever read.

>>2791988
What's pretentious about observation?

>>2791991
>I have a group of friends who make fun of the normals.
This part mostly.

>>2791987

I just have seen it thrown around in this thread and others and even reviews i've read about it.

Seriously though i don't see him getting as much recognization as others such as the lost generation, until others pop up with similar ideals to him yet are able to gain more attention possibly on a national scale and for more thought to be put in about all this.

Oh well i'm just glad i love capitalism, advertising, buying things, consumerism, banks etc etc etc.

When all these kids grow up they'll see they can't fight the "evil system" or else they're going to be living off welfare their whole lives. Lifes about writing your own book not complaining others are putting ya down. That's some backwards thinking right there.

>>2791996
Half the world is living in abstract poverty so the other half can shovel ready meals into their mewling mouths and update their facebook statuses. Whats pretentious about sneering at the system and mocking those complacent enough to bask in it?

Tao Lin is painfully normal (hipsters don't know they're normal) and no one knows who he is.

>>2792017
Just because the rest of the public hasn't had the good fortune of being exposed to the same conditions that led to your enlightenment doesn't make them worthy of ridicule.

>>2791816

Why do you NEED someone to tell you all those things? Who the fuck cares? I don't read literature to learn about society. I follow in the footsteps of Nabokov, who read not to gain ideas, but to be enthralled by a truly aesthetic voice.

should i read richard yates or eeee eee eeee

>>2792030
I was walking home last Saturday, around 8pm. It was just before sunset, and all the houses along the residential road I was walking down had their curtains open. As I walked along I couldn't help but turn and look in through the front windows, they were just their asking to be looked at. All I could see were families lit up by their television sets. Honestly 8 out of ten houses just had a family sat in silence staring at the television. If i can't ridicule them what should I do? Knock on their doors and point out star constellations or tell them here is a whole world for them to explore?

>>2791980
Dude, you're so indie; I bet your apartment smells like pomade and vinyl and your girlfriend has a dick (because shemales are SO INDIE).

>>2791980

>Say I'm angry because my licence plate get photographed when i'm driving to college, I have targeted adverts thrust in my face, the average person likes to stay in and watch the celebrity dancing finale, etc etc... How is this my fault? Why are you having a go at me for being displeased with this situation and implying that it is my fault?

IT'S NOT MAI FAUUUUULLLLLLTTTTT!

>>2792108
Enjoy your shit media faggot.

>>2792045
you could read eeeee eee eeee in a day or less, i'd suggest trying both

i, for one, don't care who becomes the voice of my generation

>>2791980
>tao is a baddie because he isn't a hippie

Lol.

>>2791999

Fitzgerald was disregarded. Joyce was considered a crank. Gertrude Stein still is. John Dos Passos, who reads him anymore, or then?

"The Voice of a Generation" is not always the best known or most bought (maybe until now). The future will decide who defined you guys the best, not us.

>>2791958
>>2791980

I may be older, but I'm no get off my lawn dude. I actually like you guys. I work with a lot of younger people and my girlfriends tend to be from the younger generation. I make no value judgements when I say that Tao has captured you in a lot of your aspects.

>He wants to subvert them somehow. He is against capitalism for some reason; something about how it directs human perception away from sentient beings and towards abstractions; he is also against being against things, because the binary nature of the universe is against being against things. Still he wants to cause destruction to McDonalds. It would be good to subvert all these places.

A perfect description of how situationism, post-structuralism, situationism and deconstruction has filtered down to the under-25s via the internet and pop-media to give a generalised feeling of unease, coupled with a complete inability to express it.

>>2791991

Tao observes, intensely. Only he chooses to remain engaged with the reality of the world, rather than sitting on a hillside doing shrooms and looking at a fucking tree for five hours.

You're not protesting, and you're not subverting "the normals", you're doing what they want: staying the fuck out of their way. Coward.

>>2792017

>abstract poverty

I think you meant "abject poverty", but the point is still unintentionally good, because the other half, the rich half, sits on their sofas watching MTV on a 92" plasma screen and eating too much while still thinking they're poor - that's "abstract poverty", and I am totally stealing that newly coined phrase.

The title of Eee Ee Eeee always, but always makes me think of pic related.

For those who don't know what pic related is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97G4Q-n24eg

you'll see what I mean within 5 seconds.

ITT: /lit/ attempts to actually discuss a book, fails
Later, can NASCAR really make you more intelligent? We'll find out after the weather.

>>2792133
I would agree insofar as inability means there are no means to describe or explain something.

>>2792199

But that's stupid: there clearly are ways to express it. Contemporary writers should be addressing these issues, questioning how friendships can develop over gmail chat. This is the world you live in, and if James Joyce were alive today, he'd be trying to engage with it like a motherfucker.

And shakespeare would be up to his goatee in charlie and hookers somewhere in Hollywood, but that's another story.

Completely agree with this guy. By "going out with the guys to do shrooms and mock the normals" you are no different to the lot who are wired to fb and such, you are just choosing a different diversion, one that will mess your brain in the long run, by the way, if you do it constantly.
For example, if you don't like the indirect culture of donation (through Starbucks and other, bransthe one Zizek talks so much about) go volunteer in an educational center of the kind you most agree with, community projects, etc. There are many things that can be done but oh no... you are out there doing shrooms because it is prohibited and you are so edgy. Don't get me wrong. I have done cocaine, acid, weed and others; but they are just diversions just like reality shows, 50 shades and twilight, and believe it or not, they disconnect you from the reality around you faster and more effectivly than the previous

>>2791842
You can stay the fuck away from Steve Roggenbuck, he dusesnt want u!!!!!!!!!!!!

>>2792697

go to sleep steve

op where did u download it i cant find it

I like his work on bearparade a lot. There's some really great stuff on there.

>>2792751
I guess I wouldn't mind a link as well

i'm just in this thread to see more pics of megan

>>2792799
lol dat hoe don't know

I've still only read Richard Yates (which is neutrally awful), but I don't care for the New York scene of which he's a part.

>>2791912
I've been meaning to read his book on the French Revolution.


>>2792133
Gertrude Stein was illiterate, and Dos Passos is true /lit/-core.

>>2792817

get fucked kid tender buttons rules

I still fucking read John Dos Passos. Jesus Christ.

Some of you need to fucking fellate a shotgun immediately.

>>2792355
Isn't that part of it though? Our generation goes with the flow until we hit a snag or see something we disagree with. When we try to change it or say something, someone grabs our head and jerks us in another direction "oh, there's a group over here for people who think like that!"

It's an endless struggle to get away from being pigeonholed into one group or another. If we're not being conforming sheep, we're edgy hipster punks. Society - and not just my generation - has become obsessed with labels and fast facts. If you can't express yourself in five seconds or less you're shunted into ignorable place.

It's like being trapped in river of rapids where you want to tell everyone and everything to stop and shut up so you can hear yourself think. But the river surges on and the only still spot in on the bank. So you swim over to the edge and climb out and look around to get your bearings, but now the rivers moving much to fast to jump in without getting a couple limbs sheared off.

We retreat into our own little worlds where stuff moves at a pace where we can focus and experiment without being called out midway through. We need to make mistakes and get lost but the world is there on the doorstop step with the right answers and the road map all filled in.

tl;dr Everything is too easy now and i'm too First World Problems to do anything but complain about it.

(professional writer appearing/posting on 4chan)
i wrote a couple good books (well, most seem to like them) and i'll tell you what. tao's okay, his next novel (i think) will really be the 'make it' or 'break it'. i'm just interested to see if he can take it to the next level after his next publication.
sorry i'm a little drunk but this is what i think of his work

richard rates c+
bed b+
shoplifting from american apparel b+ (tao, the alternative and unpublished ending would of have been such better closer, i think)
eeeee eee eeee c
you are a little bit happier than i am a-

i haven't read his other poetry collection

my thoughts

bitches

>>2792828

I like you :). It's time for a Dos Passos comeback!

>>2792977
>pointing out that you're a writer
No one cares. That doesn't give your position any more value.

Anyone have a download link? they don't sell this in my country.