/lit/ - Literature

Go to bed, Tao.

>>4956255

The /inb4 now is a missed opportunity.

>start thread under pretense of starting a discussion
>JUST KIDDING LOL I KNOW THE ANSWER TO MY QUESTION, IT'S THAT YOU'RE ALL BUTTMAD HATERS LMFAO
>reiterate initial inquiry
>admit to not even being on the board for longer than 5 minutes, invalidating whatever credibility the proposed answer had previously
what an absolute shit post

I thought Tao Lin was a ancient chinese writer or philosopher or something. Wrong I was, if I like or not I shall not so soon see

>>4956272
Lao Tzu?

>>4956249
Knut Hamsun

>>4956268
Maybe he's presenting his opinion and asking us to change it.

>>4956268

I did not call anyone butthurt over anything.

I was just sharing something I have thought about and wanted to discuss with people about. I'm sorry if the way I wrote it in sounded hostile, it really wasn't my intention to provoke.

>>4956249
/lit/ likes tao lin anyway

>>4956277

Thanks. I'll probably read something about him since I've now noticed I'm a little behind in chinese culture

>"When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad."

Taipei is a pretty good book who's only detriments are awkward, too stilted/complicated writing at times and some lacking "heft." It's a good first "serious" novel. Hopefully it's not the peak of tao's output.

>>4956249
Because he sucks
that's all there is to it
he just fucking sucks

>>4956249

>>4956330
>>4956330
wtf am I reading?

is that really by Tao Lin? and /lit/ likes this guy?

If you dislike Tao Lin you a probably racist.

Anything not from a white male perspective is thrown in the trash these days.

>>4956347
Yep. See it for yourself in the Amazon preview:

http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Yates-Novel-Tao-Lin/dp/1935554158/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401575835&sr=1-1#reader_1935554158

>>4956350
Well, shouldn't that tell you something about white people?

Also with Tao, it just happens to be that he and his writing are both trash, so yes it does go into the dump with the rest.

>>4956358
It's not just white people that are anglo-centered. That's how pervasive it is.

>>4956360
No, what I meant was white people are superior.

>>4956330

I am again aware that people do have very different tastes and taste is a very deep rooted thing. It is very hard to emphatise with taste because of its sheer complexity. It is something you acquire in the same way you acquire your personality or sexuality.

I liked this piece but I can see how you might not.

>>4956366
Do you feel like you're not being listened to?

He smokes weed two times a day, apparently

http://youtu.be/BsSLUYD0G_w?t=7m10s
(7:10)

>>4956249
>sincere
I see what you did there

>>4956377

>>4956330
Tao is the Joyce of our era. I'd say this was on par with Portrait of the Artist and Taipei was a little better than Ulysses. Does he have a Finnegans Wake in him?

>>4956372
I'm white.
I'm always listened to.

>>4956392
is that your mantra?

>>4956382
Most of us here are too young to get that, anon.

>>4956399
But you did!

You derailed my thread with white supremacy

>>4956413
Isn't that how it works?

>>4956411

I could. Recaptcha is using me as a robot to decipher street numbers for him.

>>4956416

Yeah I guess it is but I really wanted to have a conversation.

>>4956426
what is this? Spaghetti?

>>4956426

What do you mean by spaghetti?

>>4956446
>>4956426
Pretty sure you're responding to the wrong comments.

After seeing it mentioned time and again on /lit/, I decided to give Taipei a look-see last week. While I can't say I liked it, there were moments where I laughed, as well as a few meaningful passages.

I won't pass judgement, seeing as I haven't read anything else by there author, but he strikes me as having potential. Whether he does anything with it is another story. Some young writers mature with age, while others curdle.

>>4956453

Yeah

Taipei is funny. I haven't ready his other stuff. He doesn't seem like he is trying to be serious and the hate he gets is probably undeserved but he does seem to 'feed off' the attention he brings toward himself.
from what I've read of him, he seems to want to disregard his past works before Taipei which, even though I haven't read, appear to be the more artistic of his works. Taipei is basically Taos diary and earnestly feels like it at times. It gets boring but you have to admire his determination to have basically cultivated and claimed the way one speaks about themselves on the internet as his own style. I am sure it appears very novel to the middle aged but flat and normal to most of us.

>>4956458

Thank you, this was revelatory for me. English is not a language in which I communicate with people, and I don't follow any personal blogs.

I can see how that could make me appreciate it more.

Is it normal to be very bad at captcha?

>>4956277
>>4956296
Tao Te Ching is great, read it if you haven't.

>>4956499

Then read Chuang Tzu.

>>4956249
he's a shitty writer

fuck yall I liked shoplifting from aa

>>4956554
I loved it too. Have you read his other books? Are they worth reading considering how much I like aa?

Hmm, I think it is important to exert an opinion...
So...
Bret Easton Ellis and Tao Lin are pretty much the worst excuses for authors I have ever come across? Some thing like that, I guess...

Reason 1; Unentertaining Writing
Reason 2; Shit Characters
Reason 3; "Unity of effect

I recently came around to this idea of "Unity of effect", and have become more objective and more critical of things people write. Just any thing written does not deserve to be read.

"a work of fiction should be written only after the author has decided how it is to end and which emotional response, or "effect," he wishes to create, commonly known as the "unity of effect." Once this effect has been determined, the writer should decide all other matters pertaining to the composition of the work, including tone, theme, setting, characters, conflict, and plot."

>>4956563
I'm currently 3/4 through Taipei, I have not read any of his other books. The mc is basically the same guy with a different name and the book is mostly more of shoplifting from aa. It also has more drugs.
At this point I feel like it's weaker than shoplifting, maybe that's just because it's longer and spends way more time on everything.
If you like it more or less might depend on what exactly you liked about shoplifting, I like it less but it's kind of hard to describe why

>>4956573
How do you know either of those authors don't think through the plot and the characters beforehand?

>>4956249
Because he shitposts on /lit/ and hes a rich hipster who justb became an author as a vanity project.

>mfw he's my favorite contemporary author

Taipei > Bed > Eeeee Eee Eeee > Shoplifting = Richard Yates > you are a little bit happier than i am > Cognitive-Behavorial Therapy

>>4956589
Precisely. The work did not leave that impression on me.
Rather, the exact opposite.

I will not sit around in subjectivity.
If there is even one thing wrong with the work then it goes in the trash.
Their books are horrible, long winded and have no point to them.
They aren't poetic,
and the allegory in bret easton ellis' shit is crap, not to mention allegory is lower than art for art's sake.
Second of all, did you hear what I just said? The plot and characters come after the "effect". Also, their books are too long and the "effect" isn't even there.

>>4956573

But you know that this doesn't have the same level of importance for other people.

>>4956594
I think that he puts an effort in what he writes.

>mfw that one part where mentions 4chan in Taipei

>>4956610
>But you know that this doesn't have the same level of importance for other people.
It should. Ideally, I would change the opinion of others.

>>4956631

Well, I value sincerity the most.

>>4956660
I value criticism, having ideals, having a notion of good and bad, and having an opinion.

I think a lot of people dislike him because he used to aggressively market his books on /lit/. About 3 or 4 years ago he'd make his own hype threads a few times a week and it got to be annoying.

That and everything of his that I've read is just platitudinous navel gazing.

>>4956330
>mfw plebs say tao lin is shit just because they cant understand the genius behind this

>>4956573
too bad poe was a shitty poet LOL

>>4956759
okay then, explain the genius behind it

>>4956736
>tfw you can become famous by spamming /lit/
>tfw no face

(wtf is wrong with 4chan today? my posts won't send...)

Tao Lin became an irrelevant topic on /lit/ once Taipei came out and was not complete dogshit. There are barely any Tao Lin threads these days, OP, which makes me think you don't browse /lit/ much and though you could get a kek posting this shit.

>>4956249
>Do you find him pretentious?
yes

>Do you dislike his writing style?
yes

>Do you find this themes irrelevant and/or childish and/or unintelligent?
irrelevant, no. childish/unintelligent, yes.

>Do you think he's uninteresting?
yes

>I feel like you think that he is okay-ish, probably, but he gets so much more credit than he deserves, and you're frustrated or at least annoyed by this fact, and you're projecting these feelings to his writing.
I honestly think Tao Lin is a bad author. The whole "new sincerity" thing was charming in Daniel Johnston lyrics and kind of cute in Wes Anderson movies, but doesn't translate well to literature. I read Shoplifting and that e book, both of which were loaded with superficial "frankness" written in the kind of brief, chopped up sentences that NPR listeners buy up. Tao found his niche because he writes about the internet; seriously every article I've ever read about him mentions that. Not many authors outside of science fiction have used the internet as major plot devices, thus Washington Post reviewers were "impressed" with his shit.

>>4956330
My brother has autism and this seems pretty spot on to me.

>>4956426
Soooo...white people are pretty cool huh?

Who was the /lit/ anon who let him stay in his apartment according to Taipei's 4chan mention?

Rodrigo, he's named. Are you here? If so, is Tao as autistic as he sounds?

>>4957312
Yes.

>>4957312
>>4957320
i love this website

>>4956827
The two characters are named Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning even they aren't actually Haley Joel Osment or Dakota Fanning, and their conversation is really nonsensical, so it's funny. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Big laugh. Big laugh. Applause???

People only hate on Lin because he's spawned so many mediocre imitators. You can always see his twitter followers trying so desperately to copy his characteristic short form.

Honestly tao seems like a Bogart ass fiend in Taipei. Would not wanna do drugs with him

I was introduced to Tao through "cognitive behavioural therapy" and found a few brilliant moments of painful awkward honesty under a lot of shit. Read Taipei afterwards and found it (on a reread) to be a very well engineered post-modern narrative. Also a big fan 'you are a little bit happier...'

That all said, from what I've read of him in interviews and seen in video/on Twitter, he seems mostly like a complete toolbox who has found a gimmicky style of writing and wrapped it around some potentially insightful ideas. I enjoy his work for its novelty and unapologetic emotional dsyphoria, but he seems like a mildly insufferable person.