Blake Butler—
Christian Lorentzen profiles Tao Lin for the New York Observer, writing in a ‘parody of his style.’ What do you think, did he nail it?
-
Archives
- January 2023
- February 2022
- September 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- August 2017
- July 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
-
Meta
Not hardly, but it was an interesting article.
the article is garbage
Cute that he tried. To the writer: show us more of Lin, show more of anything. I know you were going for bare bones, but to succeed bare bones has to be interesting, funny, familiar.
That was pretty insufferable. I can’t say I’m a fan of Tao’s writing but a straight-up profile of him would still have been interesting to read.
I smiled once:
On his lunch break, The Observer visited a friend of his at another office. He told his friend, “I am going to interview Tao Lin tonight.”
She said, “I don’t know who that is.”
The Observer thought, “His handshake is really limp.”
it was ok
Funny, though I have to admit: I like Lorentzen more than Lin, so call me biased.
Outside of HTMLers, does anyone know who he is?
Am I the only one who thought this piece was totally awesome?
He didn’t capture Tao’s dry/’random’/off-the-wall humor. As in, for example, “Control was kiddy glue, non-toxic and blue. Though the truth, really, if you wanted it, was that there was no glue, not even kiddy glue.” There wasn’t any of that.
i wonder if christian lorentzen really liked or really hated michiko kakutani’s review of ‘indecision’. that’s all.
I also thought that part was funny.
I thought it was pretty great, but I didn’t read the whole thing.
i ‘thought’ it was good.
i’ma put some Ds on that b!tch
It was like I had to keep reading it just to see how bad the writing would get.
Where were the “quotes” Sean wondered.
Sean thought, This is bad. This is not definitive.
Sean thought, This isn’t like Tao Lin. Where are the dolphins or someone bartering in their mind over tofu lattes?
Sean thought, “Why did he announce he was mimicking Tao’s style?”
Sean drank a beer.
When I reached the last sentence of the profile, I skipped the space right before it and read it, which pelter completed the profile. This observer persists incompletely.
i thought it was ‘good’
ha ha, yeah there’s that
To me, this read less like a straight-up mimicking and more like a compromise between Tao’s flattened, “concrete-things only” voice and Christian’s desire to actually try to tell us something about Tao and Tao’s writing, explicitly and critically. I thought the way Christian went about doing it was a pretty ingenious move. By using the “The Observer thought” structure as a jumping-off point, Christian manages to drop some pretty heady (and succinct) insight into Tao’s writing. Of course, at the same time, these are the points where the voice breaks Tao mimicry and becomes something else, less Tao and more Christian.
Two main things seemed different, stylistically, between this article and Tao’s writing. I feel like, to really nail the Tao voice, you’d have to use a somewhat “normal” first name, like “Dan,” or “Corey” or a celebrity full name like “Haley Joel Osment,” as opposed to “The Observer,” which felt, to me, like a hiccup in its formality and italics. Also, I feel like Tao almost always writes dialogue in the form of quote followed by attribution (i.e. “‘I’m only happy when I’m sad,’ said the singer of the band Garbage” as opposed to “The Singer of the band Garbage said, ‘I’m only happy when…'”)
The best parts of this article, for me, happened were when Christian’s desire to say something insightful about Tao fit within the constraints of the Tao-voice, where something funny and unexpected happens at the same time as we learn something about Tao, about Christian, and about the world we live in. Like when he talks about Tao having a really limp handshake (which he does) or this part:
“The Observer’s editor picked up Tao Lin’s first book of poems, you are a little bit happier than I am, from The Observer’s desk and started reading it. ‘This is really bad,’ he said.”
This last moment, in particular, seemed to really depict the way the world, particularly the “lit world,” views Tao’s stuff, and perhaps even existence, in general. It’s like, “Nobody else out there gets him, except the few of us, here, online or uncomfortable in some strange social situation, thinking and talking about him while staring at computer screens, feeling vaguely disconnected, confused and/or calm.”
Christian’s depictions of these kinds of moments seemed instinctual, almost accidental — and yet, the way they happen is not through accident, but, as I would like to believe, through a common understanding and sensitivity to words and to the world at large.
I enjoyed this a lot, actually, despite not really thinking the voice was right on. Christian brings a lot of insight into Tao’s writing and I feel like I learned things by reading it and thinking about it and trying to articulate what I thought.
i like it a lot, think it’s ‘very funny’
Nobody has compared Tao Lin to Hal Sirowitz, google said.
*Side-note: I’m aware the actual line to the Garbage song is “I’m only happy when it rains,” but what I accidentally typed, at first, was “I’m only happy when I’m sad.” Thinking about the two of them, it just seemed better, “I’m only happy when I’m sad.”
I like this one better: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/the_written-in-.php
Not hardly, but it was an interesting article.
the article is garbage
Cute that he tried. To the writer: show us more of Lin, show more of anything. I know you were going for bare bones, but to succeed bare bones has to be interesting, funny, familiar.
That was pretty insufferable. I can’t say I’m a fan of Tao’s writing but a straight-up profile of him would still have been interesting to read.
I smiled once:
On his lunch break, The Observer visited a friend of his at another office. He told his friend, “I am going to interview Tao Lin tonight.”
She said, “I don’t know who that is.”
The Observer thought, “His handshake is really limp.”
it was ok
I liked it, too. I especially liked the transitions (or lack thereof) between lines/scenes/thoughts. I felt like I was there, in the corner, videocam in one hand, an IPA in the other.
well said.
Funny, though I have to admit: I like Lorentzen more than Lin, so call me biased.
Outside of HTMLers, does anyone know who he is?
Am I the only one who thought this piece was totally awesome?
He didn’t capture Tao’s dry/’random’/off-the-wall humor. As in, for example, “Control was kiddy glue, non-toxic and blue. Though the truth, really, if you wanted it, was that there was no glue, not even kiddy glue.” There wasn’t any of that.
i wonder if christian lorentzen really liked or really hated michiko kakutani’s review of ‘indecision’. that’s all.
I agree with mimi and Sean: the reviewer didn’t really seem to capture the off-the-wall comments/eccentricity of Tao Lin, and he totally dropped the ball on the ‘quotes.’ He sort of approximated the stiffness of the prose, but not in a way that communicated its disconnection. Plus there isn’t enough mention of current fad culture and technology, and how that pertains to the daily life of the people involved.
What he did do, though, which so many other people who write about Tao Lin fail to do, is actually meet Tao in person. I know it’s a bit old-school to actually meet the person your profiling, instead of just gmail chatting them or something, but the fact that he met Tao face to face resulted in his article having a few interesting details–like the limp handshake and the way Tao ate his food–that gave me a little more of an idea of who Tao is than what I’ve read before.
I also liked that the writer included first-impressions of Tao’s writing from people who had no knowledge of Tao Lin, like when the editor picked up the Tao’s first book, read a little, and said ‘this is really bad.’
I also thought that part was funny.
I thought it was pretty great, but I didn’t read the whole thing.
i ‘thought’ it was good.
i’ma put some Ds on that b!tch
It was like I had to keep reading it just to see how bad the writing would get.
Where were the “quotes” Sean wondered.
Sean thought, This is bad. This is not definitive.
Sean thought, This isn’t like Tao Lin. Where are the dolphins or someone bartering in their mind over tofu lattes?
Sean thought, “Why did he announce he was mimicking Tao’s style?”
Sean drank a beer.
When I reached the last sentence of the profile, I skipped the space right before it and read it, which pelter completed the profile. This observer persists incompletely.
i thought it was ‘good’
They sell, or have sold, his books in American Apparel. Maybe Urban Outfitters, too(?). NYLON have done at least one feature on him / Muumuu House.
The answer to your question is ‘yes’.
ha ha, yeah there’s that
To me, this read less like a straight-up mimicking and more like a compromise between Tao’s flattened, “concrete-things only” voice and Christian’s desire to actually try to tell us something about Tao and Tao’s writing, explicitly and critically. I thought the way Christian went about doing it was a pretty ingenious move. By using the “The Observer thought” structure as a jumping-off point, Christian manages to drop some pretty heady (and succinct) insight into Tao’s writing. Of course, at the same time, these are the points where the voice breaks Tao mimicry and becomes something else, less Tao and more Christian.
Two main things seemed different, stylistically, between this article and Tao’s writing. I feel like, to really nail the Tao voice, you’d have to use a somewhat “normal” first name, like “Dan,” or “Corey” or a celebrity full name like “Haley Joel Osment,” as opposed to “The Observer,” which felt, to me, like a hiccup in its formality and italics. Also, I feel like Tao almost always writes dialogue in the form of quote followed by attribution (i.e. “‘I’m only happy when I’m sad,’ said the singer of the band Garbage” as opposed to “The Singer of the band Garbage said, ‘I’m only happy when…'”)
The best parts of this article, for me, happened were when Christian’s desire to say something insightful about Tao fit within the constraints of the Tao-voice, where something funny and unexpected happens at the same time as we learn something about Tao, about Christian, and about the world we live in. Like when he talks about Tao having a really limp handshake (which he does) or this part:
“The Observer’s editor picked up Tao Lin’s first book of poems, you are a little bit happier than I am, from The Observer’s desk and started reading it. ‘This is really bad,’ he said.”
This last moment, in particular, seemed to really depict the way the world, particularly the “lit world,” views Tao’s stuff, and perhaps even existence, in general. It’s like, “Nobody else out there gets him, except the few of us, here, online or uncomfortable in some strange social situation, thinking and talking about him while staring at computer screens, feeling vaguely disconnected, confused and/or calm.”
Christian’s depictions of these kinds of moments seemed instinctual, almost accidental — and yet, the way they happen is not through accident, but, as I would like to believe, through a common understanding and sensitivity to words and to the world at large.
I enjoyed this a lot, actually, despite not really thinking the voice was right on. Christian brings a lot of insight into Tao’s writing and I feel like I learned things by reading it and thinking about it and trying to articulate what I thought.
i like it a lot, think it’s ‘very funny’
I am only aware of this site because of Tao Lin…
I N C E P T I O N
Nobody has compared Tao Lin to Hal Sirowitz, google said.
*Side-note: I’m aware the actual line to the Garbage song is “I’m only happy when it rains,” but what I accidentally typed, at first, was “I’m only happy when I’m sad.” Thinking about the two of them, it just seemed better, “I’m only happy when I’m sad.”
I like this one better: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/the_written-in-.php
I liked it, too. I especially liked the transitions (or lack thereof) between lines/scenes/thoughts. I felt like I was there, in the corner, videocam in one hand, an IPA in the other.
well said.
I agree with mimi and Sean: the reviewer didn’t really seem to capture the off-the-wall comments/eccentricity of Tao Lin, and he totally dropped the ball on the ‘quotes.’ He sort of approximated the stiffness of the prose, but not in a way that communicated its disconnection. Plus there isn’t enough mention of current fad culture and technology, and how that pertains to the daily life of the people involved.
What he did do, though, which so many other people who write about Tao Lin fail to do, is actually meet Tao in person. I know it’s a bit old-school to actually meet the person your profiling, instead of just gmail chatting them or something, but the fact that he met Tao face to face resulted in his article having a few interesting details–like the limp handshake and the way Tao ate his food–that gave me a little more of an idea of who Tao is than what I’ve read before.
I also liked that the writer included first-impressions of Tao’s writing from people who had no knowledge of Tao Lin, like when the editor picked up the Tao’s first book, read a little, and said ‘this is really bad.’
I found myself asking: who gives a shit?
i didn’t like it..wasn’t very informative. except i previously thought that tao was a vegan and now i know he is not.
They sell, or have sold, his books in American Apparel. Maybe Urban Outfitters, too(?). NYLON have done at least one feature on him / Muumuu House.
The answer to your question is ‘yes’.
I am only aware of this site because of Tao Lin…
I N C E P T I O N
I found myself asking: who gives a shit?
i didn’t like it..wasn’t very informative. except i previously thought that tao was a vegan and now i know he is not.
that article was totally tao lin, really really good, people definately read tao lin just because of they like flat, literal descriptions of things. that and words like ‘vegan’ and ‘organic’. as long as tao’s writing is flat and literal its the best, but when he writes ‘organic’ or ‘kale’ or ‘[other slightly obscure ‘healthy’ food or tangential reference to hipster culture like ‘american apparel’]’ i really loose my shit. really wish he would just stop all this bullshit like trying to figure out how to live a ‘satisfying’ existence without denying existential crises, or authentic representations of emotions and relationships as they occur to him as an individual human being, or humor, really don’t feel like they do anything for his writing, seems like quotes and concrete reality and lettuce is the best.
i’m bored so i’m going to write that i thought this article was more readable than anything of tao’s i’ve ever read. good bye.
that article was totally tao lin, really really good, people definately read tao lin just because of they like flat, literal descriptions of things. that and words like ‘vegan’ and ‘organic’. as long as tao’s writing is flat and literal its the best, but when he writes ‘organic’ or ‘kale’ or ‘[other slightly obscure ‘healthy’ food or tangential reference to hipster culture like ‘american apparel’]’ i really loose my shit. really wish he would just stop all this bullshit like trying to figure out how to live a ‘satisfying’ existence without denying existential crises, or authentic representations of emotions and relationships as they occur to him as an individual human being, or humor, really don’t feel like they do anything for his writing, seems like quotes and concrete reality and lettuce is the best.
disaffected consumer writing for disaffected consumers about disaffected consumers consuming disaffected-consumer-culture, in a disaffected style… you don’t find that all-consuming, Zus?
disaffected consumer writing for disaffected consumers about disaffected consumers consuming disaffected-consumer-culture, in a disaffected style… you don’t find that all-consuming, Zus?
you just gave me consumption. blegh.
woof
woof
I’m pretty sure pretty much everyone knows who he is. He probably should’ve been in the 20 under 40, but you know how these things are. C.F. his piece in Canteen, which explains things better than I ever could, obviously.
I’m pretty sure pretty much everyone knows who he is. He probably should’ve been in the 20 under 40, but you know how these things are. C.F. his piece in Canteen, which explains things better than I ever could, obviously.