Haut or not
Haut or Not (w/ digression)
Drew Toal writes:
After he moved out of our apartment, Tao Lin didn’t take all of his books with him. So, it should be noted, that these are likely his least-essential books. But isn’t Tao Lin’s refuse still hauter than a normal person’s bookshelf pride?
It’s a strange message, but I can only assume that Drew would have no reason to mislead Htmlgiant, so let us gather that Tao a) lived with Drew at one point, and b) these are/were his books. In a perfect world, I probably should have contacted Tao to corroborate this, but this is an imperfect world.
These books are horrible. It’s nice to see Yeti and Hobart, and the What Gives? spine looks interesting. I just have a hard time believing these are Tao’s books. It’s hard to see, but the grey book under Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes is A Step by Step Book About Dwarf Hamsters, which is this most believable thing in the stack. Tony O’ Neill’s book is there, so maybe Toal’s story is true. Wondering who Drew Toal was, I googled him and came across his piece in Time Out New York on 60 WRITERS 60 PLACES, 1 of 60 being Blake Butler. So now the whole Tao Lin >> NYC >> Blake Butler >> Htmlgiant loop seemed not only more probable, but inevitable. I’m rambling, onwards to the books.
There’s also Memories of Peking, which I guess is ‘ethnologically’ not absurd, however absurd such a non-sarcastic conceit is (or would seem to my perception of Tao). I guess this Haut or Not post isn’t really about the books, but more about public notions of private people. The two mediums of ‘internet’ and ‘real life’ are often in conflict with each other. Twitter lets us know what a stranger is thinking every 5 minutes, but these ‘thoughts’ are self-edited and generally of rhetorical agency. Regarding the internet, I always think “Nobody knows anyone,” which seems a little harsh when I think of my own parents, who after 30 years of a tumultuous marriage, don’t really know each other either. Perhaps the internet is not to blame for all this incomplete knowing – maybe it’s just life.
Dana Carvey, replying to a question regarding being famous said [paraphrase], “If there was a cantaloupe on TV every night on every channel, then everybody would freak out if they actually saw the cantaloupe in real life.” I think what he meant was that something accrues meaning each time it enters somebody’s consciousness, the aggregate of which defines success. The internet speeds up this process exponentially. So here we are, all hyper-linking and freaking out on each other. People talk shit in an arena where you can’t smell it. It’s endearing actually: our obstinate march towards sharing things, and our most human indignations. Tao’s books don’t look like Tao’s, but then, I don’t know him.
Rating: Not.
Tags: Dana Carvey, Drew Toal
TeBordo’s We Go Liquid, when combined with Jeff Parker’s Ovenman, is easily haut enough to tip the scales. But leaving it behind for an ex-roommate to post on the internet is not.
So I agree.
TeBordo’s We Go Liquid, when combined with Jeff Parker’s Ovenman, is easily haut enough to tip the scales. But leaving it behind for an ex-roommate to post on the internet is not.
So I agree.
“It’s endearing actually: our obstinate march towards sharing things, and our most human indignations.”
yes.
“It’s endearing actually: our obstinate march towards sharing things, and our most human indignations.”
yes.
I like this post. I’ve been thinking stuff like this too since this started. I don’t think a person’s bookshelf defines them in any way. It doesn’t necessarily represent the books a person cares for or reads often or has read at all, but just has in their possession at that time. Everyone keeps making judgements and I think its all funny for the sake of doing this, but I think because a person’s shelf is so meaningless is why its kind of funny and we’re allowed to be mean with it a little bit, because its just kind of ludicrous. We might as well take pictures of our underwear drawers or our medicine racks or whats in our fridges or really, let’s all cut off our heads and blend our brains together and lather it onto the wall and draw spirals with it and take pictures of mirrors taking pictures of ourselves burning all our books.
I like this post. I’ve been thinking stuff like this too since this started. I don’t think a person’s bookshelf defines them in any way. It doesn’t necessarily represent the books a person cares for or reads often or has read at all, but just has in their possession at that time. Everyone keeps making judgements and I think its all funny for the sake of doing this, but I think because a person’s shelf is so meaningless is why its kind of funny and we’re allowed to be mean with it a little bit, because its just kind of ludicrous. We might as well take pictures of our underwear drawers or our medicine racks or whats in our fridges or really, let’s all cut off our heads and blend our brains together and lather it onto the wall and draw spirals with it and take pictures of mirrors taking pictures of ourselves burning all our books.
Tao has, in my opinion, pretty good taste. Certainly better than I do (who else loves DragonLance?). I thought the idea of having your least essential books photographed for this would be funny though. Mine would include an autographed copy of Chris Elliott’s Shroud of the Thwacker, the Punisher Omnibus and a severely beaten copy of Atlas Shrugged. Stay tuned for when Justin and I start selling other stuff he left at the apartment.
Tao has, in my opinion, pretty good taste. Certainly better than I do (who else loves DragonLance?). I thought the idea of having your least essential books photographed for this would be funny though. Mine would include an autographed copy of Chris Elliott’s Shroud of the Thwacker, the Punisher Omnibus and a severely beaten copy of Atlas Shrugged. Stay tuned for when Justin and I start selling other stuff he left at the apartment.
yeah, how do you not take We Go Liquid with you?
yeah, how do you not take We Go Liquid with you?
let’s take pictures of our faces and look at them
let’s take pictures of our faces and look at them
Matthew is so funny.
I love looking inside people’s medicine cabinets. I have since I as a kid. I feel all ashamed after doing it, too. But if I use your bathroom, I am going to quietly open up your medicine cabinet and really check it out. Which reminds me of that celebrity garbage “art” someone made. Pamela Anderson had massive amounts of wine coolers. I think our garbage says a lot about who we are. Which made me think of Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow. Wasn’t there a garbage obsessed thing going on there?
Nice digression. I agree.
Nice digression. I agree.
what’s with all the frank o’hara popping up in these?
what’s with all the frank o’hara popping up in these?
he seems to be coming back in vogue.
he seems to be coming back in vogue.
Wait, has Frank O’Hara not been in vogue? He should be voging all over everybody’s face. I have made three comments on HTMLGIANT tonight, all various degrees of man-praise for Misters James Purdy, Jimmy Chen, and Frank O’Hara, and I feel confident about all of them.
Wait, has Frank O’Hara not been in vogue? He should be voging all over everybody’s face. I have made three comments on HTMLGIANT tonight, all various degrees of man-praise for Misters James Purdy, Jimmy Chen, and Frank O’Hara, and I feel confident about all of them.