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/lit/ - Literature

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3865457 No.3865457 [Reply] [Original]

What are your thoughts on Taipei by Tao Lin so far?

What did you think of him mentioning /lit/?

>pic related

I'm about 80% through, but I'm not really enjoying it...

>> No.3865462

it looks like shit

>> No.3865474

Jesus Christ what a faggot.

>> No.3865475

>>3865462

I think it looks really good

>> No.3865476

tao lin is a retard

>> No.3865484

Pretty shit.
I was lucky enough to be the first to grab a copy at the library.
Wiped my ass in four different spots of the book and took it back to the new arrivals shelf.

>> No.3865494

I think it's his best work to date. He's really coming in to his own.

>> No.3865546

>>3865494
This.

>> No.3865560

>>3865494
Can't say I disagree with you, Tao.

>> No.3865569

Why does he write about such banal storylines?
Is this really affective with the
>ZOMG HIS CHARACTERS ARE JUST LIKE ME!!!!1
crowd, or is he trying to teach us about ourselves?
If the latter, he does not have the insight nor does he have the skill to do so.
He should just keep writing articles for Vice. This is a role well suited for him.
If you disagree, please prove me wrong with excerpts.

>> No.3865613

That can't be legit. He mentioned 4chan...in a book? It's like he doesn't want to be taken seriously..

>> No.3865626

Just picked it up today after avoiding reading Tao Lin since I read Shoplifting. So far it's pretty shitty shallow cool-kid-hipster conversations, but I'm only on page 12.

>> No.3865627

>>3865457

That's some pretty boring writing, jim.

>> No.3865637

>>3865613
what context? am intrigued

>> No.3865640

>>3865569

Life tells no stories.

>> No.3865643

good-seeming and vaguely enjoyable-y

>> No.3865644

"look at me im an upper class young adult trying to affect meaningful ennui"

i cant stand these sorts of things

>> No.3865649

>that run on
tao lel

>> No.3865656

>>3865649
i know right? they say he's kafka for the internet generation? i laugh and say more like proust for the internet generation! kabam!

>> No.3865657

>>3865649

kaboom!

>> No.3865660

>>3865656
but that'd imply discernible talent

>> No.3865663

>>3865660
tao lin has talent

>> No.3865668

>>3865640
that's why you make them into stories and abridge every extremely dull moment (you simply mention they are there, you don't describe them exhaustively

>> No.3865666

>>3865660
tao lin? more like tao lent

>> No.3865671

>>3865668
thank you for supplying my grandmother's perspective on literature

>> No.3865674

>>3865668
kaboom

>> No.3865765

The gist of alt-lit is astoundingly similar to Pop Art.

For better or worse, Tao Lin is probably going to become a literary icon like Andy Warhol became an art icon: while pissing off the art/lit world and proudly being a pretentious douche.

>> No.3865772

>>3865765
Sweet. I want to be pissed off.
Can we get some more excerpts

>> No.3865774

>>3865772
You can have the whole book, friend:

http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/427847/Taipei--Vintage-Contemporaries----Lin--Tao-mobi.html

>> No.3865985

>>3865666
more like tao win

>> No.3866178

So proud. Tao is making US famous! Ever think of it that way?

Also thank you /lit/ for introducing me to Tao works.

>> No.3866205

>>3865637
Read the OP's image. It's out of no where for a sentence

>> No.3866207

>>3865660
Proust sucks though

>> No.3866210

>>3865457
This is the first writer to come out of the 4chan.org/lit/ scene aka the most obscure of the internet literary salons.

Discuss.

this could be literary history in the making guys and we're A PART OF IT

>> No.3866219

>>3866217
/lit/ is

Threads last like 3 weeks

>> No.3866221

>>3866219
the post I replied to said this:

>4chan
>obscure anymore

no no no no nope no no no

>> No.3866229

Does no one else find this book funny? It made me laugh on many occasions. And other times it made me feel really bad.

>> No.3866246

http://pastebin.com/5fgUK9cE

My long thoughts

>> No.3866253
File: 105 KB, 207x259, Yul Brynner.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3866253

>>3866210
He's posted here like 5 times maybe. I remember the thread he's referencing, it was like the tail end of a long go to sleep tao thread, it's probably archived. the go to sleep thing is referencing his notoriety for viraling his work, ie the gawker, it was taken from the /mu/ meme directed towards deadmau5.

>>3865644
>Addtionally, I’m interested in Buddhist thinking, and wanted to write a book where the focus is only on concrete reality, on the direct and “pre-language” experience of concrete reality, in a context of “time passing.” An unmediated experience of reality seems desirable to me sometimes. None of these reasons, in my view, have anything to do with “numbness,” “ennui,” “apathy,” “condemning my generation,” “saying [anything] about my generation,” “saying [anything] about society,” “saying [anything] about the state of the world,” or “saying [anything] about technology’s effect on people.”
In reference to shoplifting from aa
http://therumpus.net/2009/09/the-surface-of-things-the-rumpus-interview-with-tao-lin/

>>3865660
If you read more than half a page, it becomes clear the writing is intentionally stilted very quickly, I felt.
If you're going to criticize a work, don't do it so stupidly. It's very common for lowbrow turds to pretentiously project pretentiousness onto a perceived avant-garde as a silly shield to excuse themselves from the actual commitment of consuming a non-canonized work they've not yet been told how to 'appreciate'. He's not trying anything, stop being dicks. It's not ironic, it's not commentary, it's basic realism depicting a contemporary perspective. I enjoyed Tai Pei, it dragged in some spots but there were memorable scenes, ie the two almost transparent blue-esque psychedelic trips, and some things I found pretty funny. If you don't like lit that isn't introspective, then don't read it, I like the detached perspective.

>> No.3866256
File: 241 KB, 379x579, 1366764194477.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3866256

>> No.3866260

>>3866246
And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still:
"A boy's will, is the wind's will.
And the thoughts of youth are long, long, thoughts."

>> No.3866261

>>3865626
Having been with hipster kids, these are not their kind of conversations. They try a lot harder. These are the conversations people have when they approach their 30s.

>> No.3866268

The Chinese are a very impersonal, collectivist culture, which explains Lin's proclivity towards post-irony. It's just not in his upbringing to express things sincerely, so the best he can muster is a cheap, muddled half-imitation.

>> No.3866270

>>3866246
You posted this and asked for thoughts on the review earlier. It was good, more insightful than I expected but I still got the feeling you were hesitant to really express your thoughts or criticize the work, like you felt an obligation to be somewhat defensive of the surface criticism, while also unconfident (ie CONCLUSION I GUESS) in developing any concrete interpretation. You mentioned he was the same age as you like 3 times for the same purpose of suggesting 'it might just be me though'.

Contrast with this
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/1-response-to-every-page-of-taipei-by-tao-lin/

which was maybe more personal and insightful but also very limited and improvised, I'd consider it a falied experiment in criticism. Honestly I feel like Tao Lin's essay on almost transparent blue is the ideal approach to criticism (borderlining simply indepth description), at least to an "existential" novel like Tai Pei
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/almost-transparent-blue-ryu-murakami/
though I would be interested in a comparison of the two, and also it's arguable if Tai Pei is worth the effort.

>> No.3866435

>>3866270
Thank you, I appreciate the feedback.

>> No.3866545

Might actually buy this now

>> No.3867709

>>3865772
There were a few passages that really stood out to me as elegant and sentimental, at least releative to the generally cold and removed voice Tao writes with. Even professional reviews seem to miss many of these passages, which include high stylistic risk and careful word choice, extremely deliberate sentence construction, etc.

>The sky had begun to colorfully darken, a few hours later, with reds and purples and pinks that drifted away, like cotton candy, from an unseen horizon, as if something there was changing and releasing energy, when an Asian girl, who had slowed and passed a minute ago while talking into an iPhone, returned and said she recognized Paul from the internet and distractedly asked if Daniel was a cop.
...
>Then, with his back to one of the two edges dropping to the street, he approached an already fearful Paul--sitting cross-legged at the platform's center, aware Daniel had been drinking steadily for hours and was probably on two or more drugs--who reacted preemptively, against what seemed like a purposeless entity unreasonably desiring his involvement, with defensive movements of his arms and hands, causing the situation, in Paul's panicked state, to immediately seem like an unrestrained wrestling, though it probably looked more like an exaggeratedly confused handshaking. Paul tried to concentrate on flattening himself--on retaining a low, stable center--while repeatedly telling Daniel to "stop," because it was "dangerous," he heard himself say in a gravely serious, faintly humorous voice of uncertainly suppressed fear, but was distracted by how most of his thoughts were based on a reality in which he had fallen off the building. Shoud he close his eyes? What should he try to see? What would his mother do/feel? Could he grab things to disrupt his fall like in the movies? Could one of these be his final thought? What would that mean? Why couldn't he comprehend this? Should he think other things?

>> No.3867715

>>3865457
Thank God some douche didn't report Tao for illegal activity.

>> No.3867723

>>3865457
Wow, that excerpt is awful.

>> No.3867738

>>3867723
Rewrite it better.

>> No.3867824

>>3866253
>lowbrow turds to pretentiously project pretentiousness onto a perceived avant-garde as a silly shield to excuse themselves from the actual commitment of consuming a non-canonized work they've not yet been told how to 'appreciate'.

I threw up a little