/lit/ - Literature

>>2848523
that shit going to 404 so fast, marketeer

Ben Lerner is one of my favorites.

thread of the year 2010

>>2848546
>2012
>doesn't even sage

>>2848551
outdatedness part of the fun imo
+plus the picture is lmao
'he looks so happy'

Nah, he'll throw the Tao Lin.

what if he really is sometimes on
and sees this
sb should twitter him

>>2848576

>>2848583
Not that /lit/ should care what this retard sees and reads, but Google alerts him of threads such as this.

Sage because this shit really must stop.

id fuck andrea coates...

>>2848592
>andrea coates
hav fun w/ all dose stds

Tao, stop shitting up this board.

tao should check his cis-privelege

>>2848735
You should check how to spell privilege.

>>2848552
God damn I hate Ben Lerner.

Joshua Mohr, Scott McClanahan, Noah Cicero are probably my three favourite contemporary writers.

I know cicero gets slack because he is friends with TAo and everyone thinks he writes the same shit, but that's not the case. He deserves credit on his own. Hell, he was even published 4 years before Tao Lin even made his internet persona.

>>2848795

Your internet "persona"???

Tao I really wish you would die. I'm serious. I literally want you to die.

You have no persona, other than hipstery self-promoter. That's like the worst fucking thing you could ever be. You've never written a word worth reading. You won't. Fucking. Leave. Us alone on /lit/. I would pay moot $500 out of my own pocket to ban you.

>>2848823
"pay pal" it to me and i will "leave"

>>2848823
Tao lin does not care about /lit/. our continued fascination with him is kind of an embarrassment, honestly.

>>2848795
i think i saw a video from this cicero guy where he talked about his influences regarding design/structure of one of his books.
that was rather interesting

>>2848795
is their stuff downloadable, i will just go on ignoring them
>provide download

>>2848917
yeah he posted on here, like, once, and ever since then dumbass babbys on here have been obsessed with him and every time someone posts about him they freak out and are like OMG ITS TAO LIN

its dumb as hell

I get this feeling Tao Lin browses /lit/ every once in a while, but never brings himself up or discusses himself. He just watches as we go about constantly claiming to be him and blaming others of being him, and chuckles to himself.

I'm Tao btw.

>>2848965
how do you know, what did he say

>>2848977
i think he tweeted about it or sthing

>>2848795
Shut the fuck up, Slaf

>>2848965
the thing is, the way tao behaves on various lit blogs, HTMLgiant and gawker and other sites like that, he doesn't pretend to be other people, he actively participates in discussions about him without trying to hide his identity. it's kind of his M.O. to say he's constantly on /lit/, a board with a relatively small user base, and for some reason he's aggressively promoting himself in a way that doesn't match the way he usually does and is also more likely to gain him detractors than fans is not only naive, but a vast overestimate of the significance of /lit/ as a literary community

>>2848965
>every time someone posts about him they freak out and are like OMG ITS TAO LIN
That's actually been happening since /lit/ began, like within the first month or so

I think there was even a thread about him on /b/ before /lit/ was even created, and Tao Lin even mentioned it on his twitter.

>>2849047
yah i know and its always been dumb as hell and i don't know why people still do it

sametao, sametao everywhere.

We will never like you. We have a D-List published author among us ALL THE TIME, and yet you are only treated with indifference or scorn. You have started hundreds and hundreds of threads about yourself, and gained not one reader in all these years of effort.

>>2849078
hes doing pretty well for himself, I mean hes probably the most famous author in the "alt lit" community besides make blake butler and hes one of those rare guys who actually supports himself entirely by his writing and who knows when he finds time to do it in between all of his posting on /lit/

>>2849078
I'm reading Richard Yates right now.

>>2849102
yeah seriously, tao, it's pretty amazing that you manage to make all the posts on /lit/ that aren't mine

>>2849104
yeah im reading his stuff since i saw it dlinks posted yesterday

down and out trolls
today:
op

bumping this, it's important guys

tao lin's a chill motherfucker
best writer out there btw
haters stay mad

So I've been thinking about reading something of Tao Lin's. Where should I start?

ITT: not sure which posters are trolling, which are serious, which are tao

be assured tao didnt start it, it was me

>>2849162
Start with pic related.

If you're not wholly repulsed, read "Richard Yates"

>>2849172
Tao Lin is the MLP of /lit/

>>2849184
tao is such a good writer :)

bump

tao if you're real was it you that i saw in bklyn on thursday

p-please r-r-respond

>>2849184
Is that real? Like, really-written-by-Tao real?

>>2849503
It's the opening of his most famous novel and it's glorious.

>>2849509
I'm pretty sure I've got his work on my PC somewhere. I'll give it a quick read or something. Seems like it might be a way to pass time.

I figured out why he's the mediocre success he is. Everyone feels vaguely depressed and alienated, nowadays, and he gives the people who buy his book something to identify with. For a little while they feel not so abnormal. It's a gimmick that will wear thin passed the second, if the not the first, book.

>>2849509
Which novel, and why is it about Dakota Fanning?

>>2849571

Richard Yates. Because hipster autism.

his first collection of stories, Bed, is actually quite good in my estimation. I think it was before he took his hyperminimalist aesthetic to the extreme that has been dubbed "the new autism" and he was just writing stories about sad people. if you want to read something from him, read that.

bump

>>2849571
It's not about Dakota Fanning, those are their screenames. Get it together.

Patrick deWitt is an excellent writer and I'm glad he's getting recognition.

I am almost finished with Richard Yates now and I have to admit I am really enjoying it.

I can see how people would say he is a "voice of the generation". I can also see why people really hate him (he repeats the same statement over and over) ,but overall his choice of that style (to me anyways) contributes a lot to the over all book.

>>2851712
You clearly never read it it. It doesn't take place entirely on the internet, and these are their real names.

They are not THE Dakota Fanning and Haley Joel Osmand, though.

>>2851749
I've read it. It's sitting on my shelf. The names are mocking screenames. How do you not understand that?

>>2851768
>shelf
>2012
it's not important anyway

>>2851779
>2012
>Being a Facebookgenner who thinks ebooks are the future
Shiggy diggy.

>you will never be an up and coming writer

is it just a distant dream, guys? do publishers really bother to read shit from some unknown invalid?

>>2851791
edgy antiFacebook neckbeard detected
also
>asimov
>2012

>>2851802
>it's edgy and neckbeardish to not count the number of people you know and lurk photos of that girl you're too beta to talk to
Who are you kidding?

>>2851768
No those are actually their real names. It is just supposed to be a joke, Tao said it himself in an interview

tao said it himself

>>2851813
My sincerest apologies then.

>>2851768
Psst. You're wrong.

Just because you read a New York Times review that said it was their screennames doesn't mean it's so.

>>2851813
>>2851821
Christ, why are you guys so focused on this? I read the novel and assumed it was a joke on people using others' names as screenames. Call the Pope, alert the witchhunters.

>>2851825
Probably because of your cocky "How do you not understand that?" response.

Nobody like arrogance, but arrogance from a wrong motherfucker is intolerable.

Has anyone read anything by Jonathan Safran Foer?

I'm reading his non-fiction Eating Animals right now and he has a very engrossing writing style. Very tempted to read his Unbearable Lightness of Being after this

>>2851834
Unbearable Lightness of Being is a Kundera novel about Charter 77 and other notable events in Czech history.

Everything is Illuminated is the Foer novel you probably meant.

>>2851836
Yeah that's the one. I don't know where I got that other title from to be honest.

Is Everything Is Illuminated good?

>>2851841
I'd say no, but then neither did I think Eating Animals was worth it.

Read it and see for yourself.

>>2851841
I didn't like it except one part which was really heartbreaking and made me cry so it was worth it just for that. It's not all that long.

Just to mix up the conversation here, Dave Eggars has a new book published to wide critical accalim. Anyone reading it atm?

>>2851915
Is it about idiotic 20-somethings and MTV shows?

>>2851931
Maybe. Why do you ask, were his other books about that?

Here's the NYT book review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/books/review/a-hologram-for-the-king-by-dave-eggers.html

>that feel when you want to write something crazy and original like Tao Lin but you also want to write your structured sci-fi novel you've always dreamed of

How do I pick? I feel like once I publish one, my style will be forever ingrained on me, and I'll never be able to choose the other.

>>2851956
write sci fi under a pseudonym

isn't this what a lot of romance writers do?

>>2849184
I bought a book by him...
i should have given it just to some random hobo.

>>2851970
How do pseudonyms work anyway? Is it like a confidential contract with the publishing company that they won't release your real name to the public and will put the name that you ask? How many people would know your true identity?

>>2851980
i don't know, best to sort it out with the publisher i suppose

you could always self publish on amazon, there was a thread earlier with people talking about their modest success. granted it was erotica, but one anon claimed to make $500 a month

>>2851980
If someone wants to find your real name, it's not possible to hide it. It mostly just means that when you go to the bank, the old bank teller isn't going to ask you about that taboo scene about the woman, the banana and the ice cream.

>>2851971
I'll take it

>>2851987
So if I write one book under a pseudonym and then another under my real name, and the latter becomes popular, it will be well-known that I wrote the first?

>>2852015
Eventually, probably. I think bare minimum would be the bank, an accountant and a lawyer knowing, to make things simple legally and be able to cash cheques.

>>2849172

There should be a word-filter for "Toa Lin".

Suggestions?

>>2852042
Tea Loan

>>2852042
Nil Oat

>>2852042
Wouldn't it filter something like "The Tao links..."

>>2852150

I only know grep but my guess is you can implement word boundaries in almost any language.

<\b>ToaW*Lin<\b>

>>2849555
Is that the secret to Tao's success?