September 28th, 2009 / 11:04 pm
 Author Spotlight

Tao Lin Reading + Q&A + Minireview

Tao Lin reads from the first section of Shoplifting from American Apparel, then answers questions about writing process, influence, shoplifting, etc.

I read and greatly enjoyed this novella a couple weeks ago. It makes some interesting use of what people who want to put tags on things could call verbal minimalism inherting cinéma vérité, as well as a mash of Andys (Warhol and Kaufman), new uses of internet language in print, and a linear-alinear timeline modeling that more correctly models everyday life than most textual attempts at representing everyday life. That’s if you want to put tags on things.

I’d prefer to just say that I laughed more at parts of this book than I’ve laughed in a long time, and I think those who see this book as ‘incomplete’ might be missing part of the point here, which is not to exploit the expectations of Tao Lin’s previous work while also not exploit some kind of forced shifting of an artist’s tone. Like many artists who are ahead of the curve, this book is ahead of a curve that you might not yet see curving, particularly because it most succeeds on the level of entertaining the reader while being ahead of the curve, which then most easily becomes mistaken as unfocused, when in fact it is the extreme opposite: focused beyond focus.

I really enjoyed this book.

You can buy it here.

Tags: ,

22 Comments

  1. September 29th, 2009 / 4:51 am Nate—

      ditto on this Blake. i haven’t laughed aloud reading a book in a long time.

  2. September 29th, 2009 / 12:51 am Nate—

      ditto on this Blake. i haven’t laughed aloud reading a book in a long time.

  3. September 29th, 2009 / 12:42 pm Cincinattus C.—

      tao lin is to htmlgiant as green day is to operation ivy

  4. September 29th, 2009 / 8:42 am Cincinattus C.—

      tao lin is to htmlgiant as green day is to operation ivy

  5. September 29th, 2009 / 2:21 pm stu—

      There are two characters in that exchange? Couldn’t tell.

  6. September 29th, 2009 / 10:21 am stu—

      There are two characters in that exchange? Couldn’t tell.

  7. September 29th, 2009 / 2:32 pm bearfish—

      ditto bros, loved it

  8. September 29th, 2009 / 10:32 am bearfish—

      ditto bros, loved it

  9. September 29th, 2009 / 2:43 pm Blake Butler—

      characters

  10. September 29th, 2009 / 2:43 pm Blake Butler—

      day

  11. September 29th, 2009 / 10:43 am Blake Butler—

      characters

  12. September 29th, 2009 / 10:43 am Blake Butler—

      day

  13. September 30th, 2009 / 5:38 am Justin Rands—

      bro’s before ho’s

  14. September 30th, 2009 / 1:38 am Justin Rands—

      bro’s before ho’s

  15. September 30th, 2009 / 6:57 pm justin—
    • October 1st, 2009 / 12:15 am tao—

        thank you blake

        enjoyed reading your review

    • September 30th, 2009 / 8:15 pm tao—

        thank you blake

        enjoyed reading your review

    • October 1st, 2009 / 2:42 am Jonny Ross—

        tao’s lost weight. looks good.

    • September 30th, 2009 / 10:42 pm Jonny Ross—

        tao’s lost weight. looks good.

    • October 1st, 2009 / 12:19 pm bareflesh—

        i just love taoie

        like nicole loves jonathan
        like vendela loves dave
        like ayatal loves michael

        im working on my own book too

    • October 1st, 2009 / 8:19 am bareflesh—

        i just love taoie

        like nicole loves jonathan
        like vendela loves dave
        like ayatal loves michael

        im working on my own book too

    • October 1st, 2009 / 8:32 am the scowl » Blog Archive » “Ten quid for the lot…”—

        […] related links, Blake Butler discusses the novella in question at HTML Giant, and Rozala Jovanovic interviews Lin at The […]