I would like to quibble with your characterizing Tao Lin’s writing as being easy to make (maybe I am misinterpreting you, and if I am I apologize.) When I read something by Tao Lin I usually get the impression that what I’m reading is very deliberate, and although it maybe somewhat autobiographical (I don’t know, I don’t know Tao Lin’s life that well) I think his writing is very polished. Also amusing. So I don’t think it’s correct to equate his writing to something like dada (which is what I got from the comment “Does the fact that anyone can do it automatically make it not literature? But not just anyone is doing it, only Tao is doing it.”)

In any case, I cannot continue typing because I want to catch “Up” in a theater not absolutely packed with little children and that showing starts in twenty-three minutes.

I would like to quibble with your characterizing Tao Lin’s writing as being easy to make (maybe I am misinterpreting you, and if I am I apologize.) When I read something by Tao Lin I usually get the impression that what I’m reading is very deliberate, and although it maybe somewhat autobiographical (I don’t know, I don’t know Tao Lin’s life that well) I think his writing is very polished. Also amusing. So I don’t think it’s correct to equate his writing to something like dada (which is what I got from the comment “Does the fact that anyone can do it automatically make it not literature? But not just anyone is doing it, only Tao is doing it.”)

In any case, I cannot continue typing because I want to catch “Up” in a theater not absolutely packed with little children and that showing starts in twenty-three minutes.

See, in my last paragraph, I point out that anyone can write the kind of stuff Tao writes. I mean anyone. If you can string together words into a meaningful sentence, and you just write about what happened to you, you can write as well and as deeply and as meaningfully as Tao writes.

The question is, is it literature? Does the fact that anyone can do it automatically make it not literature? But not just anyone is doing it, only Tao is doing it.

Does it have to be literature? Do we care? So what if it’s not?

What if I publish it in book form, and sell it on the internet? Is it literature now?

I’m sort of thinking these questions are the point of of the whole enterprise. The writing is not the point. The writing, in fact, is only incidental to the larger thing happening.

Sean

See, in my last paragraph, I point out that anyone can write the kind of stuff Tao writes. I mean anyone. If you can string together words into a meaningful sentence, and you just write about what happened to you, you can write as well and as deeply and as meaningfully as Tao writes.

The question is, is it literature? Does the fact that anyone can do it automatically make it not literature? But not just anyone is doing it, only Tao is doing it.

Does it have to be literature? Do we care? So what if it’s not?

What if I publish it in book form, and sell it on the internet? Is it literature now?

I’m sort of thinking these questions are the point of of the whole enterprise. The writing is not the point. The writing, in fact, is only incidental to the larger thing happening.

Sean