post your views on tao lin
what direction would you like to see him take
thanks
do you think he should quit twitter
it takes up a ton of his time
>>7479999
Dubsy is that you? <3
>>7480080
yes
I bought Richard Yates a few years ago. I read 6 pages and stopped.
a few weeks later I used it to kill a spider and that was the last time I touched the book
>>7481061
Good morning father dearest. <3
>>7481065
you have a superiority complex ddeessuu
thats the only book i read by tao lin (got a free download to my phone) and it was a light, amusing read about some super fucked up stuff. read it whenever i had five minutes or waiting at the DMV or what have you.
people like to hate on tao lin but his style is original and interesting (again, idk about all his work, only read RY)
>>7481120
kill yourself tao
>>7479999
Tao Lin should devote more time to literary criticism. His essay on Almost Transparent Blue is actually great and it seems like it informed his best work to date (Taipei). I don't think I would call any of his work "recommendable" other than his essay, but I think that he could be, in the future, a very good writer. Keep going.
Also, he seems like a shitty person, but that doesn't mean anything as far as writing goes.
>>7481148
This.
>>7481148
Haven't read anything from Tao other than that essay, but I agree that it was a worthwhile piece. Tao's prose style was occasionally irritating, but it was a thoughtful work that gave me a better understanding of Almost Transparent Blue.
1000 pager less about relationships and more about psychedelics with even longer/more elaborate sentences than Taipei
>>7481120
It's definitely not original
Whether it's interesting or not is subective
>>7481466
IJ2?
>>7481490
infinite jest 2 would be the best possible title for tao lins next book
>>7481482
Right, who wrote like an autist who casually takes mood stabilizers before him?
I love him and think he's misunderstood by most people on /lit/
I like fatherdubs better
>>7482707
nietzsche
south
>>7483500
I agree.
>>7479999
What a shame that those quads were wasted on such a shitty author.
I liked Shoplifting from American Apparel
Taipei was alright, but not as enjoyable as Shoplifting
I liked Bed.
Some of the more abstract passages were difficult, but they were good. I liked how somber and sparse Bed was.
He's one of those authors who's liked by people who don't do much reading outside of social media.
Could anyone who has spent years seriously reading and thinking about Western canon get much out of Tao's writing? I very much doubt it. An experienced reader will see right through his lazy, gimmicky style.
Could someone who found their way onto /lit/ wanting to get into reading after years of video games and drugs like Tao's work? Probably.
more cooking the books
>>7484735
Yeah, it's a work of literary criticism specifically about that book, so I'd say you should definitely read it if you want to appreciate tao's essay. It's under 200 pages iirc so reading it won't be any huge commitment.
he has a fantastic web presence.
>>7480014
absolutely not!
>>7484764
Written by 22 year old
>>7485147
Yeah and Eragon was written by a 15 year old who's parents were publishers
tai pei was nice, made me feel warm and cold and equidistant from all humans
richard yates was a wild ride
reading shoplifting next
>>7481494
Why is this so true?
>>7484764
>Taos writing style speaking to people who only read social networks
Sorry, but his prose has a distinct literary quality and is built carefully. You may think that he's not a good writer, but it's definetly nothing accessible and to be honest, i think that's most peoples gripe with Tao, the autistic inaccesibility of his writing, that makes people wrongfully assume that he's an arrogant hipster or whatever cliché they want to use to insult him.
I enjoy Taipei a lot. It is original and thematically cohesive. Other books/authors similar to Taipei in terms of tone, structure, or themes are The Sun Also Rises, Lorrie Moore's stories from Like Life, The Book of Disquiet, White Noise, Leaving the Atocha Station, and Frederick Barthelme.
>>7484764
>He's one of those authors who's liked by people who don't do much reading outside of social media.
wat? idk most people I've bet who enjoy him are interested in books about relationships, depressed people, existentialism, and realism, ranging from Flaubert, Chekhov, Musil, Joyce, Lowry, Hamsun, and Proust. Lin feels original but I get a strong sense of lineage or tradition when I read his books. Especially Bed, Taipei, and Shoplifting.
More abstract imagery and situations through the eyes of an autistic person.
>>7489579
Agreed. All the em dashes and weird dependent clauses in Bed threw me off fairly often.
