Author News
Tao Lin Tweets a Non-Meta Tweet
Earlier today, Tao Lin tweeted an entirely non-meta tweet.
in ~’93 in ~5th grade, i think, there was a ‘meme’ at my school of throwing things at (or ‘simply’ hitting) ppl then saying ‘ricochet’
Notice the lack of self reference or promotion, reference to the nature of said tweet, bracketed ambiguous/conceptual “thought[s],” esoteric ongoing commentary of [something] semi-contextualized via hashtag.
Last month, The New York Observer reported that, for his third novel, Lin was working in what he describes as “Lorrie Moore’s prose style and tone.”
This tweet seems to suggest that very notion. What I mean is, I could see a thought like this appearing in the inner monologue of a Lorrie Moore character, is what I mean. Or I guess even that it seems like something from Bed.
You guys got anything else to say?
Tags: Lorrie Moore, Tao Lin, twitter
in ~’11 in it’s ~4th year, i think, there was a ‘moment’ at htmlgiant where the blog ‘jumped’ (or ‘simply’ leapt over) the shark.
oh, i’m sorry my snippet offended you… i was just making an observation i thought other people might be interested in
#htmlgiantproblems
this is a good observation definitely
A lot of what I have read about him lately seems to suggest to me that he is probably on his way to being considered a more “serious” author [brief aside: I understand the presumption/pomp/whatever-else that goes along w/ me saying that he is somehow not a “serious” author now – but by using that word I specifically mean that he is perhaps going to be considered as a valuable author to an audience that might have, up until now, considered his work to be some sort of hip-young-people-archeology that is largely associated w/ Internet ephemera and has little to no ‘literary value’] and I think this is probably in part that given the themes/ideas that he has suggested he will write about (Siddartha-esque ennui/despair) in a way that is perhaps less tethered to some aesthetic that is associated w/ a young person culture that people find stupid or privileged and therefore not really interesting to read (uhh “hipsters” I guess). I’ve always felt like he has ‘talent’ that has not really found ‘full’ fruition in anything that I’ve read of his, at least on a level that is satisfying to me, so I am pretty excited to read this new one, hope its not more of the same.
i hope so
That’s a lot to fish out of – or impose onto – that one tweet. I mean that to see this sentence as a fragment from the world of a ‘character’ in a story, and not simply or ‘simply’ a memory glancing off of a tweet-armed character, seems to me to be more reader-participatory than either Tao Lin or Moore need or count on.
–or it’s a remarkably sensitive insight.
Or either both/and.
#seemsbleak
How much did he pay you?
interesting observations, but only a fraction of tao lin’s tweets are actually meta, if you mean self-referential. i wanna stir the POT.
if this manages to actually happen, it’s going to be because he’s working with an extremely skilled editor. i don’t envy said editor’s task; he/she will likely have to rewrite most of what gets turned in.
feel interested in an elaboration on this
why do you think my editor will have to rewrite most of what gets turned in, honestly feel interested in what you are basing this on
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interested in an elaboration from any of the 11 ‘likes’ also, including shaun gannon, i see
that was in reference to http://htmlgiant.com/snippet/tao-lin-tweets-a-non-meta-tweet/#comment-319285944
Tao Lin is an antisemite. I went to school with him. He’s also a klepto.
what evidence do you have that i’m an antisemite/klepto, what are you basing your assessment on
I specifically recall you making Nazi analogies when describing Israel because you’re rabidly pro-Palestine (to be rabidly pro-Palestine is antisemitic).
Also, you’ve stolen from me personally. You used to steal staplers for cheap thrills in high school. Only later did you graduate to stealing from American Apparel and the NYU bookstore and the Bebe store (according to you, not me).
Are you upset?
for whatever it’s worth (just some lit gossip): before you sold your novel to vintage, i had heard tim o’connell said the next novel he picks up will be based on what he predicts he can edit to match his distinctive/prolific tweet style. like he wants to basically mold the novel into an extended version of his own
twitter account. i’d guess a lot of his rewrites would have that goal.
i honestly have never comprehended what the two sides are in the [israel-related thing, the name of which i also have never comprehended] and, when i’ve heard the name of one of the sides, have never comprehended which side is the side that conservatives support and which is the side that liberals support
i don’t remember ever stealing staplers in high school, and i don’t think i would have derived ‘cheap thrills’ from doing that
i’ve stolen ~3 times from ‘american apparel’ and ~6 times from an NYU bookstore and 0 times from ‘bebe’ store
i don’t feel upset
feel interested in details on me making nazi analogies
lol
tao, you are not easily trolled. bra-the-fuck-o.
and i’m a bad troll.
I thought this was a solid tweet and, though not obviously, worthy of a post. It flooded my head with memories of elementary school where we had similar things like the meme Tao mentions. One of them was saying the word “decent” when something was good. Also there was some sort of “Fry Guy” from McDonald’s meme. My friends and I would run through halls singing, “We are the Fry Guys!!”
the fact that you compulsively steal Jews
I really want to eat a Big Mac, haven’t eaten one in years. Maybe Tao Lin feels the same way. I feel horrible about cows, about McDonald’s. But this craving lingers. There was a time in my life, as a small person, when a Big Mac was exciting, pinnacle of the week. Also forced to go to Mass, to get haircuts, to kiss relatives who reeked of cigarettes. These days I call the shots, and I understand a Lorrie Moore reference. Maybe best not to go comparing oneself to herself, unless intended in an unwriterly way, i.e. I drive my auto on the right side of the road same as Lorrie Moore. I will not have to work on Labor Day, just like Lorrie Moore. I enjoy ice cream and keep a portion of my money in a bank, in the fashion of Lorrie Moore. I have written a novel that will have pages and a cover, which Makes me in one sense equal to Lorrie Moore. I was born and will one day die, maybe tomorrow, maybe on a Tuesday, but I will no doubt die, something I have in common with Lorrie Moore.
i’m jewish and openly jewish and have spent extended time with tao on multiple occasions, him, i think, fully aware of my religious affiliation, and have never felt threatened by an aura of antisemitism whether it be spoken or unspoken, as it is neither
if you are in fact “equal” to lorrie moore, i’d be interested in reading your work, but if you’re just trying to prove a point, i’d be less interested
What if I ‘get’ what Lin is up to but still think its pretty boring?
Get off Tao Lin’s dick
Lorrie Moore is equal to Lorrie Moore.
“luv dat diK” – everyone at HTML GIANT, everyone on this thread, and like, just you know, we all have like a Goku v. Vegeta kind of thing going on re: Tao Lin v. the rest of the Internet.
i feel like you don’t understand what ‘offended’ means. i feel like, perhaps 70 to 80% of the time you are using ‘it’ incorrectly. it seems, i feel, that ‘you’ ‘are’ ‘the’ ‘one’ ‘offended.’
Sometimes I read the literary blogs and I get this sensation; no, not a sensation, a specific visual memory.
Stand
up and turn the mechanical rotary dial through all twelve channels. (It
is 196x. There is no remote. There are only twelve choices, most of
them empty. The images are black-and-white). Between the working
channels are the screens of static, the visual representation of the hissing absence. (Someday this will be an art installation entitled Visual
Static. It is 196x. There are no such thing as Art Installations.) There
is nothing on. Push in the knob marked On/Off/Volume. (It is 196x.
There are not accepted ideograms for these functions).
The image collapses into a dot, which slowly fades from the screen.
re: ‘what [i am] basing this on’
what i’ve seen of your writing, especially thought catalog.also, can you elaborate?
do your own work.
how much did he pay you for that comment?
how much did you pay yourself for that comment?
how much did he pay you for that comment?
how much did you pay yourself for that ‘conversation’?
how much did he pay you for that comment?
yes. also ‘funny’ (or simply ‘amusing’) that fishkind said this tweet didn’t have ‘bracketed’ quotes of ambiguous/conceptual ‘words’ even though three words ‘are’ bracketed in this way, at least two of them for tao’s typical ‘ambiguous/conceptual’ tactic
I enjoyed those stories posted from Bed, read them all to the end without abandoning, which proves to me I enjoyed them.
LOL, david. i was trolling. of course tao isn’t a jew hater, ya kike!
can you provide me with examples of times i’ve used the word ‘offended’ and explain the incongruities in my use of the word… i am curious to know and improve my communication skills
i don’t follow your use of quotation marks. i feel like, perhaps, 85.7142857% of the time you used them incorrectly.
In the United States, “bracket” usually refers specifically to the “square” or “box” type.
how much did he pay you for that comment?
re: ‘i am curious to know and improve my communication skills’ … you are curious to improve your communication skills?
re: ‘i feel like, perhaps, 85.7142857% of the time you used them incorrectly.’ … so… ‘name’ used them incorrectly in the past, but uses them correctly now?
actually, I’ll be ordering the book so will be paying him, which is how it’s supposed to work, mutha
oh. burned. i guess i didn’t think about it that way.
feel interested in elaboration on this
how can something ‘usually refer specifically‘ to one thing or another?
I want to read a story about a Nazi Tao who steals w/ a neutral facial expression.
there were these dudes at my high school who were always saying, Word to Big Bird.
In cases where a word refers both to a specific thing and to a genus of things, sometimes the specific reference is the more commonly used. In those cases, that word “usually refer[s] specifically” as opposed to generally.
For example, bracketing is “usually” done with ‘[ ]’ (or ”, or ‘{ }’)–that is, things that visually wrap what is bracketed at both ends.
–but ‘name”s point obtains. While we generally mean ‘square or angle or squiggly brackets’ when we say “brackets”, we do easily say that other symblols are used to ‘set apart’ their contents–“to bracket” their contents.
In the quoted tweet, “‘meme'” and “‘simply'” are certainly “bracketed” by single-quotation marks to set them apart from the other words in the tweet on the grounds of those two words “ambigu[ity]” (or whatever sense or tone Tao Lin’s scheme marks in this way).
‘In cases where a word refers both to a specific thing and to a genus of things’ <– this, too, is wrong.
feel interested in what ‘Slewing91’ (& the 14 ppl who ‘liked’ it) think about it, in terms of elaborating on it, not what i think they think about it or what i think about it
I gotta hand it to Tao Lin: mediocre talent as a writer; genius talent as an attention whore.
probably ~90% or more of people on earth will think that my tweets are boring and in my view they are all legitimate in thinking that, in that every person will be interested in different things, therefore in my view if you feel that you ‘get’ what i am doing but still think its pretty boring that’s okay, there is no need to do anything about that feeling
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0
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can you elaborate on how tweeting a ‘boring,’ nonsexual, nonpolitical, opinionless, noncontroversial, nonprofane memory about ~5th grade contributes to my status as an ‘attention whore’
feel aware of the like “oblique shit talking” going on in here, i think
There were indeed video installations in the 196X (toward the end but still)
You are wrong; the clause is correctly phrased. <– "Bracket" is an example of the homonymy referred to, in which the word for an individual thing or small group of closely related things becomes (or is taken from) the word for the action it or they do or the use to which it or they are put, and so becomes a way to refer to other, less similar things that do or are used to do something closely similar to what the individual thing or small group of closely related things do or are used to do.
Single-quotation marks are a kind of "bracket" when they are used, not to set apart direct or indirect quotations, but rather, to set apart ([here] = 'to bracket') word(s) on the grounds of it (their) ironic, dubious, ambiguous, or other effect(s) in that usage. QED
If you've got an argument, make it; if not, the brevity of your inaccurate reply will be win/win.
John’s point is at least a little interesting, David. (–though, if he means to deny likeness – and the usefulness of recognizing likeness – among writers, that’s far too strong a position to be accurate, to me.)
The tweet limns an edge of ‘character’ with a shard of revery. That’s quite a common narrative technique or tactic.
How is the tweet like what Moore does as opposed to what many writers do? I mean to ask: if Tao Lin hadn’t mentioned his appreciation of Moore (to the point of conscious imitation?), would the tweet have caused you to think of her writing?
well, get to asking questions then.
example: “when i’m talking about spaghetti, i’m talking about this plate of spaghetti… and pasta… all of it. all pasta. specifically.”
i’m going to assume that’s the shape of your mouth.
forest for the trees, buddy. forest… for the trees.
idiot
No fucking shit, I think Tao Lin is going to be a serious American writer one day. I think it’s going to surprise all of us. I’ve never read a book of his. But I’ve heard the one with all the E’s is pretty good. Does anyone have a cheap copy I can borrow?
One can use the same word to refer to a specific thing specifically or to a genus of things specifically. This diversity of specification has no bearing on saying that quotation marks “bracket” what they contain.
(I didn’t mean “[i]n cases” of referring to “both” individual and genus in a single instance; as the main clause indicates, I meant in cases of words where each reference is sometimes conventionally meaningful, as when ‘bracketing’ with symbols that are not called “brackets”.)
‘name’ is correct in that, although quotation marks are almost never called “brackets”, single quotation marks are used in the tweet “to bracket” two unquoted words.
Scare quotes are, in fact, a kind of “brackets”, no?
i will mail you a copy, email binky.tabby [at] gmail.com your address
it’s the number zero
what part of my question do you want me to elaborate on
i don’t have specific questions, i feel interested in any elaboration
that doesn’t make any sense.
which part do you think?
frank,
can you prove that you’re a real person? and not tao impersonating a real person?
signed,
-a real person
what is
‘0’
i’m not sure
can you elaborate on how it doesn’t make sense, i feel like it makes sense
i desire more information related to the information that was given
what he said.
‘i desire more information related to the information that was given’
you sound much more honest when giving commands to people.
nor ‘i’
how does adding eyes make it look like less of a mouth?
this is me stopping short: i think we can both agree that language is a generally, if not specifically, fluid thing. -cheers
zero
[question]
[statement]
neither is imperative
SHITSTROM!!!!!!!!
I’m interested in what this shitstorm will be called.
shitstorm ‘can you elaborate’
i like tao lin. what i don’t get is why anyone would want to write like lorrie moore.
i had a popular comment
Tao: “Blip bloop blip bloop I’m a machine with no emotions”
*sounds of muumuu house compatriots fapping
*(A post someone who doesn’t like Tao Lin and Muumuu House might make)
*(An aside someone from Muumuu House might make)
*(An aside someone who likes Muumuu House and the haters equally might make)
can you elaborate on why you always want people to elaborate? don’t you know you can’t know anything?
because i’m interested in reading more information about what they have typed
I loved SFAA by the way. When haters hate you they usually haven’t read it I find.
I feel the tweet lacks any of the cynicism that creates distance in shoplifting and yates. That might indicate that he is working in a style that would be more ’emotional’ in the sense that we as reader might get to experience a bit more of what goes on inside the minds and bodies of his characters. And by more I mean more than ‘I feel like killing myself’-statements, for example an explanation why the character is thinking about killing himself and how that feels (probably depressing :)). As for Siddhartha/lorrie moore I think both are much more filled with emotion, and could be said to contain some sort of meaning or message that they want to give the reader. Maybe Lin is getting a little more moralistic? (could be a good thing)
what elaboration is ‘zer’ executing to the left of that small mouth
I can agree that language is a metaphorically fluid thing. If you’re interested in the dialectical entwinement of ‘specific’ and ‘general’, I can recommend Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals, transl. and ed. Spade, without reservation. Cheers to you.
here’s fine: F. J. Depiction, 641 South Irving Boulevard, LA, CA, 90010
here. i made a graph/pictorial representation. it is also vaguely color-coordinated.
lol
i like it
i’m not sure i reflected the causal relationship between ‘reflecting on banality of banal tweet’ & ‘#htmlgiantproblems’ but i feel like you can infer something there
i actually prefer it like this. to be honest.
i love the tweet but i think plenty of tao’s tweets are this way ? non-meta, no brackets etc
someone should publish a book that is like ‘tao lin: the collected shitstorms’, collecting all shitstorms relating to tao on this website and others… they r always fun to read
i agree steve. i think originally there were more tweets like this a couple years ago. i think recently tao’s tweets have become increasingly meta. maybe that peaked in like june or something, but it was something i noticed over a period of time, and then i noticed this tweet and it stuck out to me and stuck with me all day, and it made me think about his forthcoming novel and other things, so i posted this post.
i think part of me knew this shitstorm might happen, but then another part of me assured me to post it because it felt like a valuable comment regarding a tweet i found very enjoyable, personally, in reference, in my head, to a forthcoming, ‘ambitious’ (quote from ‘the observer’) book that has recently made for interesting news. i wrote this extremely tired, i think around 2am berlin time, not really thinking of consequences or responses, originally as a snippet, just wondering if other people felt something similar to me. i don’t view this post as a mistake, or glorifying tao lin, or as a provocative attempt to create internet ‘shit.’ i have done things i view, personally, as provocative in the past, and i don’t believe this was one of them. i expected it to elicit between 5 and 35 comments, some regarding the tweet, some regarding the novel, and some saying essentially ‘this is a shitty post, fuck you htmlgiant, fuck you fishkind.’ i guess i don’t understand the internet or htmlgiant as much as i once did, though i guess i never honestly, fully understood htmlgiant. thank you, steve, for allowing me to use your comment as an appropriate place to explain the post and my feelings ‘post’/’mid’-‘shitstorm.’ it is 1:12 pm on monday september 26, 2011. i am in berlin, germany in a computer lab. i am of sound and sober mind.
cuz, you know, Real People are totally comfortable posting their addresses on public forums.
neither is pronoun
Can you elaborate on why you pretend to not understand what I said?
i’m failing to see why there were 116 comments on david fishkind’s personal observation of tao lin’s tweet. besides the fact that people love to talk shit on the internet, the post was as innocent as a toddler farting and then running away, giggling.
I’ll drink iced coffee and read a bunch of comments of a tweet that interest me in away I’m not sure of. 140 characters have a lot inertia, sometimes.
also maybe husserl i don’t know
carles ghost tweets for tao’s account
if a belly button had eyeballs and stared into itself it would find this blog.
I used to check this blog semi-regularly to learn about new writers, but I stopped reading when the circle jerk came full circle and every post was HTMLgiant author A promoting HTMLgiant author B’s new book/story/poop smear.
Now I check it once in a blue moon and it’s analyzing fatuous tweets that make Kim Kardashian look like Sartre. I think some of you have been homebound for too long. It’s time to take a vacation and see the world outside of Brooklyn. Who knows, maybe new experiences will give you the inspiration to write a book that more than 3 people will want to read.
Are you familiar with #whitegirlproblems? It’s a pretty big hint, if you aren’t.
thinking about mailing him empty / funny box
Sartre had wall-nipples??
in case anyone’s curious, i’m like 5 of the pseudonyms on here. toodles.
tinyurl.com/3tnmjr8
Today I received a package from TL at my parents’ house and my mom said “who is TAO CHEN??” that’s all.
I stopped reading this comment at “I stopped reading HTMLgiant when…” because guess what– not only are you reading it, you’re commenting on it.
“How much did he pay you?” became a really ‘hot mini-meme’ and I felt validated for ‘minutes on end.’ Later, the whole thing felt like an unearned, lunchroom ricochet. I looked you up. You posted the dancing Gordon Lish thing. Why didn’t you just say so? I loved the dancing Gordon Lish thing.
Maybe it’s already been talked about, but I was kind of hoping Tao’s book would be like a more detailed ‘Relationship Story’?
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