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/lit/ - Literature

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4855303 No.4855303[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

How has this guy gotten any recognition?

>> No.4855316

Because faggots like you keep making threads about him. Fuck off

>> No.4855323

>>4855316
someone is a little mad

>> No.4856042

I do love his poetry.
Haven't read his novels, though.

>> No.4856236

>>4855303
From what I can tell, he's a really tireless self-promoter. Say what you want about the quality of his writing, but the popularity of his social media networking has helped him eke a name for himself IMMENSELY. Also, selling royalty shares on his book was a smart thing to do; he had enough foresight to realize that debut authors make hardly any money in royalties, so he found a way to buy groceries until his next book was finished.

>> No.4856242

by writing some interesting books

>> No.4856256

>Being an insufferable hipster
>LOLSORANDUMBXD
>Bret Easton Ellis
>Muh drugz
>Le urban asian faec

That said I sort of enjoyed Tai Pei. He did a good job illustrating what it's like having a large group of friends with few responsibilities who will just consume whatever chemical as long as they will still be able to function in some form. I do think he might have the 'bergers though.

>> No.4856263

His first book was pretty good in parts, but I think overall the reason people (including myself) tend to like him is because he's the only young person I can think of (except for his drones) writing about contemporary youth culture (or lack thereof).

The thing is that due to a lack of competition he's pretty much gotten away with wirting books where 10% of the work is interesting and insightful and the other 90% of it is the literary equivalent of forcing memes

>> No.4856265

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsSLUYD0G_w

Jesus, I live in a world where guys like this get money for writing.

Gonna be hard not to get suicidal tonight.

>> No.4856269

Affirmative Action

>> No.4856272
File: 462 KB, 1108x499, 1372522071029.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4856272

>>4856263
>he's the only young person I can think of (except for his drones) writing about contemporary youth culture (or lack thereof).

Laurie Penny can write circles around Tao Lin.

>> No.4856276

>>4856265
>Wake up
>420
>Eat
>Go to library
>Try to do something on my computer
>Go home
>420
>try to do something on my computer
>Sleep

Voice of a generation.

>> No.4856280

>>4856276
But isn't that representative of many young peopel these days?

It reminds me of my life

>> No.4856281

>>4856272
Wow I didn't realize that she was this awful. Thanks for proving to me that I'm not just knee-jerking to her media persona and she actually does suck.

>> No.4856291

>>4856281
Would you care to point out what, exactly, is awful?

Perhaps her metaphor use, or syntax structure? I'm not sure if you can see well enough from your soapbox, but as you maintain that she 'sucks' perhaps point out bad pronoun variation, or misused free indirect style?

Obviously that sample is far to small to asses anything, but seeing as you managed to 'knee-jerk' to it, perhaps you can find the atrocious foreshadowing, or something other than objected to content that supports your claim.

>> No.4856298

>>4856291
>This much anal fissuring

Maximum kek. That second paragraph looks like it was pulled from the depths of /r9k/ you dramatic retard. Is Penny your lord and savior?

>> No.4856304

because he pays viral marketers like op to post his face all over the internet

>> No.4856306

>>4856291
For me personally, it's not her prose so much as her message. What is she promoting exactly? Anarchy? Does she want us to abandon responsibility to ourselves and to each other in the pursuit of some nebulous 'happily ever after'?

Maybe the fact that I'm incensed enough to be asking these questions is indicative that her writing is 'doing its job'. Maybe that's the purpose of a provocateur.

But the fact that I've never seen her once detail the future that she has in mind for the us makes me wary of her influence. People like that - who want and want and want, but have no ability to define what exactly it is that they want - are very childish, in my opinion.

>> No.4856308

>>4856304
>because he pays viral marketers
implying, it's him that's doing that dumby.

>> No.4856332

>>4856306
>What is she promoting exactly? Anarchy?
Traditional Marxism.

"The next generation don’t need a Nasa-funded study to predict that their adult lives will be harder than those of their parents. Slavoj Žižek, every hipster’s favourite communist philosopher, once opined: “It’s easy to imagine the end of the world . . . but we cannot imagine the end of capitalism.” I’m not sure that’s true any longer. I suspect that young people today are gradually beginning to imagine what the end of capitalism as we know it might look like – and while it might be exciting, it won’t be a lot of fun and might require some weapons training. " --LP

>> No.4856343

>>4856332
Wow she sounds like some sort of terrorist bigot. You should probably >>>/pol/

>> No.4856349

Because his parents are filthy rich and pay his Manhattan apartment rent

>> No.4856358

>>4856343
/lit/ - Philosophy, Marxism, and Pictures of Bookshelves.

>> No.4856370

You guys realize his work is a joke right? Doesn't make it good, but obviously someone doesn't write the things that he does with a straight face.

>> No.4856378

>>4856370
No dude I thought the book about xanax and making fake movies whilst flying on LSD was 100% serious artistic virtuosity. I think that you probably just lack the intellect or artistic knowledge to truly evaluate all of the themes and suggestions.

*farts in own mouth*

>> No.4856380

>gimmicks
>publicity stunts
>self promotion
>reviewing his own books
>viral marketing
>owning a publishing company

>> No.4856407

>>4856265
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsSLUYD0G_w [Embed]
This actually wasn't a bad interview. He seems eccentric in like a smart way (see typing shit he's doing now with his hands when he speaks).

His book tours are a lot worse.

>> No.4856471

>>4856358
More like:

/lit/ - Ad Homeniems, Wikipedia scholars, Semantics, 420 Stirner enthusiasts, feminism, what does /lit/ think about _______, and pictures of bookshelves

>> No.4856495

>>4855303
He's not bad. Taipei was 1000x better than Richard Yates. His older, college stuff (see Bed or his other short stories) is more up my alley. There's more there, I think, and his prose isn't so annoyingly flat.

Look up "Love is a Thing on Sale for More Money Than There Exists"

>> No.4856507

Cause he has that peculiar brand of ironic detachment that comes from growing up in the modern world

>> No.4856521

He's not amazing but he 'gets' something about modern life few authors can really grasp. He's also doing something new in an entertaining way.

>> No.4856532

>>4856507
Lol

>> No.4856535

great self-marketing. pretty impressive tbh

>> No.4856543

>>4856272
it's not the 60s anymore

>> No.4856555

>>4856507
Nah, part of why Tao Lin is so interesting is because he doesn't have the ironic detachment a lot of postmodernists do. He is detached, sure, but there is something sincere about it.

>> No.4856568

>>4855303
Because he writes about the internet

>> No.4856779

Has he gotten recognition..? I never hear anybody outside of 4chan talking about him.

>> No.4857413

>>4856306
>Does she want us to abandon responsibility to ourselves and to each other in the pursuit of some nebulous 'happily ever after'?

The responsibility to ourselves is to break the system we're currently living in because it's actively working against the people. The example she uses of the police battering protesters should be sign enough that the world we live in needs to be changed. Unless, of course, you're a standard 4chan neoreactionary.

>> No.4857419

This mother fucker needs to hire a reader http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNzpyoHsMms

>> No.4857436

>>4855323
>>4856042
>>4856242
>>4856280
>>4856495
>>4856507
>>4856555

Come off it, Tao. This is just sad.

>> No.4857639

I think what sets him apart from other people of his (my) generation is that most people don't care. I doubt he's got some profound insight or pearls of wisdom, he just decided to put on paper what most people thought wasn't worth putting on paper.

That's why it's different, but it certainly isn't original and doesn't seem all that great, at least not to me.

>> No.4857982

Why wouldn't he? What's wrong with his books?

>> No.4857995

>>4857639
>it certainly isn't original
name a writer who did what tao lin did before he did it
i don't think anyone else writes quite like he does. like it or don't, he's original.

>> No.4858056

>>4857419

Holy Fuck. I've never actually seen video of him. I thought he was some super hipster. I imagined him being a confident douche. But he's awkward as fuck. He's like one of those people who became a writer because he couldn't explain his thoughts through speech. That whole stumbling at the start trying to explain about the microphone is how most of my verbal communications go. Kind of made me admire him.

>> No.4858231

OP, I've come to realize that very few people finish a novel in their life.

Of those few people, a vast majority are awful and will never be decent writers.

Which leaves only a handful of worthwhile manuscripts.

Of those, even fewer have marketable potential.

Of what is published, the vast majority is genre fiction/romance novels/airport fiction.

Which leaves a small amount of "literature" published. Is it that surprising that the media jumps on every author like Tao Lin?

>> No.4858238

haha we're one of the slowest boards on 4clams, we need a good meme! :P xD

>> No.4858242
File: 73 KB, 342x380, 1395114848968.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4858242

>>4856272
>implying she didn't get BTFO by Starkey in a live debate

starts at 1:54

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9dA6E3fJw

>> No.4859842

I read some earlier Tao Lin a while ago and it's all I've read. I was looking at the sample for Taipei and it looks a lot better than his other shit. Serious question, though: is he trying to write a disaffected hipster or does the protagonist have aspergers? Trying to avoid someone who might be at a party (but you don't even know) because you said something vaguely negative on the internet sounds like some abnormal behavior. And some of the dialogue. Is it intentional?

>> No.4859885

Before I went to read Tao Lin I thought he'd be really shit, but he was actually really good. I was surprised and even though parts were boring it was kind of cool in an artsy sort of way. He reminds me of me cause I like to talk on the internet.

>> No.4859901

>>4858242
starkey was wrong.

>When Penny indicated in the second week of May that she might not be able to get back from the US in time, we tried to find a replacent but couldn’t. We offered to pay her airfare back. By the time she replied to our offer (with the request for an additional fee) however, time was too short to do adequate publicity and we cancelled the event. The timing was the issue not the money [emphasis in original document].

>We were shocked at Starkey’s accusation, and disappointed to read later that Penny didn't want to appear at our event anyway. Considering what happened last weekend, however, we seem to have avoided spreading more heat than light on the important topic of democracy and how best to achieve it.
http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2012/06/today-we-statement-from-thomas-paine.html

not that i like penny, they're both confused extremists

>> No.4859911

>>4856276
That describes this generation perfectly.

>> No.4859927

>>4859842
Intentional is irrelevant. Point is, it is.

>> No.4859934

>>4859842
I read Tai Pei. Paul is autistic as shit.

>> No.4859940

>>4859934
And by extension Tao is, as the book is very autobiographical.

>> No.4859969

>>4858231
You can pay to have your work published

>> No.4859971

>>4859940
Well, Tao Lin's autism isn't a big secret.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2BJSV8Q1Yw

>> No.4859975

>>4859971
But is he as autistic as our bandana messiah?

>> No.4859980

>>4859971
STOP MUMBLING

>> No.4859983

>>4856265
Le wrong generation kill me pls XD

>> No.4859987
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4859987

>>4859975
lin isn't half the autist DFW was. what a man

>> No.4859997

>>4859971
>don't feel like you have to convey with your face
>no, i'm feeling normal right now
that's hilarious

>> No.4860282

Read Tao Lin's essay on Almost Transparent Blue and then read Taipei. You will see that he is actually not a bad author and that Taipei is certainly a growth from his previous attempts.

>> No.4861937
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4861937

People love to have the poverty of their experience reflected back to them.

>> No.4862867

>>4860282
That essay is actually really impressive. I read it after I finished Almost Transparent Blue and didn't realise Tao had written, and was then really impressed.

>> No.4862879

>>4862867
>Almost Transparent Blue

is Ryu Murakami good? Two people have recommended him to me this week and I saw Piercing today and thought about getting it but I don't know if it's a good place to start

>> No.4862880

>>4862867
>>4860282
That got me interested, here it is: http://thoughtcatalog.com/tao-lin/2011/02/almost-transparent-blue-ryu-murakami/

>> No.4862888

>>4862879
I've only read Almost Transparent Blue, and that is really quite good, and it's outside of my ordinary tastes in literature, but I really enjoyed it.

>> No.4862903

>>4862879
I've only read Almost Transparent Blue, In the Miso Soup, and Popular Hits of the Showa Era, but of those, only ATB struck me as anything significant. The other two rely on gimmick to carry them where having taking the work in a more "serious" or "straight" way would have made them more interesting. They felt lazy. I don't know if Coin Locker Babies or 69 are any good.

>> No.4862904

>>4862903
*having taken

>> No.4862912

>>4862903
Another guy here who's read In the Miso Soup, Coin Locker Babies and Popular Hits of the Showa Era - your summary of "gimmick" strikes me as appropriate for Coin Locker Babies, too.

In fact, I don't think I liked any of these... It's just "hurr I'm empty inside" coupled with a ton of violence.

I did however watch his movie Tokyo Decadence and got a nice boner out of the deal.