As Jonathan Franzen solemnly graces the cover of TIME magazine, we got to thinking who of his peers were also deserving of a cover on other magazines, and what those magazines might be. Here are our top picks:
Tags: ben marcus, James Franco, Jonathan Safran Foer, sam lipstyte, Tao Lin
Oh, man…
No comment.
Father Issues Special.
Well done!
Since when is James Franco a peer of Franzen? And you consider him as good a writer as Marcus, Lin, and Lipsyte? Based on what?
no commentary gino, was just fooling around with pics.
21 NEW sex tips is a lot…
sweet
though you’ve been less-funny that usual, this made me laugh
Oh, man…
No comment.
Father Issues Special.
Well done!
Tao Lin doesn’t even deserve this parody.
Since when is James Franco a peer of Franzen? And you consider him as good a writer as Marcus, Lin, and Lipsyte? Based on what?
no commentary gino, was just fooling around with pics.
21 NEW sex tips is a lot…
hilarious, jimmy
sweet
though you’ve been less-funny that usual, this made me laugh
oh yes.
Tao Lin doesn’t even deserve this parody.
Why does Ben Marcus look so young/like Elvis?
hilarious, jimmy
oh yes.
Why does Ben Marcus look so young/like Elvis?
Bahahahahaa.
A bit off topic but is there anything more classic than the line “shows us the way we live now.” Really, JF does? He has no idea about me. I’m a white trash Pookie.
“worries”
ding ding ding
As a shaven-headed , I object to the Ben Marcus one — shaving you head is a choice, goddamnit! We say no to rogaine, yes to style!
As a lover of funny things, though, I tip my hat.
Bahahahahaa.
A bit off topic but is there anything more classic than the line “shows us the way we live now.” Really, JF does? He has no idea about me. I’m a white trash Pookie.
you seen that curb your enthus episode about the trick or treat/”bald asshole”? it’s from season 1. you’d love it.
“worries”
ding ding ding
As a shaven-headed , I object to the Ben Marcus one — shaving you head is a choice, goddamnit! We say no to rogaine, yes to style!
As a lover of funny things, though, I tip my hat.
you seen that curb your enthus episode about the trick or treat/”bald asshole”? it’s from season 1. you’d love it.
:)
:)
Good goshness I have not read a word of Tao Lin’s writing (except excerpts in interviews, perhaps) and I am sick of the sound of his name, his veritable hemorrhaging of persona (as transcribed here), and the little phantom thrill I am supposed to get when his name comes up (as implied, passim). It will take a hell of a long time to be able to pick him up and judge his work on its own merits.
Is there a joke I have missed? Is there some Kool Aid I could drown my objections in? Can we agree to a ceasefire? Something? Anything? Is there a fucking petition?
Good goshness I have not read a word of Tao Lin’s writing (except excerpts in interviews, perhaps) and I am sick of the sound of his name, his veritable hemorrhaging of persona (as transcribed here), and the little phantom thrill I am supposed to get when his name comes up (as implied, passim). It will take a hell of a long time to be able to pick him up and judge his work on its own merits.
Is there a joke I have missed? Is there some Kool Aid I could drown my objections in? Can we agree to a ceasefire? Something? Anything? Is there a fucking petition?
Time heals all wounds. Just ask my pet rock, Mr Hula Hoop and that Echinacea over there
http://wiredforbooks.org/tamajanowitz/index.htm
Does work have its own merits too? I mean in addition to being its own reward.
TL is working for people, plain and simple. How and why I don’t know. But you can’t say it isn’t happening.
So much is happening. All the time. Everywhere. Hype is its own inescapable Artform now because people want things to work for them. Things not working is not an option.
Hi Steven. That’s so true, that so much is happening.
TL has simply asked that we pay attention, where ‘we’ is a set that includes Gawker, Melville House, the Observer, etc.
The usual thing is not to ask, but to assume that the light one gives off will attract attention on its own. Sometimes that happens too.
I noticed as I read the Lorentzen piece that even though I’ve never read anything of TL’s all the way through, I knew pretty quickly that Lorentzen didn’t really ‘sound’ like TL. Also, I was irritated to read fake-TL to the point of wanting to read real TL. This feeling passed. But I wondered.
For some reason I had to sit through a marketing thing at work once. Blah blah seven mentions blah blah favorability blah blah red black blah blah sex. It is sheer voodoo, just as most neuroscience is voodoo. And voodoo, you have to admit, gets your attention.
Yes, people want things to work for them. People are very busy working for things. People not working is not an option.
People spend all their energy working for goods… maybe a little energy is left working for love/understanding/ not-alone-ness. No energy is left for working for Art (ie, to achieve the fleeting joy of Aesthetic Enlightenment or Intellectual Pleasure). Art that requires No Work isn’t Art, it’s Entertainment. I think Entertainment is great/necessary… but my problem is that Entertainment, in the Age of No Time Left to Work for Art, is crowding Art out of the picture. Art is becoming a forgotten pleasure because it requires Work instead of giving us Easy (Passive) Enjoyment. Art is losing a War it is designed very precisely to never win. We are therefore losing Art. I think that sucks.
I think you might be oversensitive, DN, and perhaps overstimulated.
I think I see maybe 2/3 as many mentions of / interviews with / features on ‘JDT’ as I do on ‘TL’. (Nice acronym aesthetic you have go on here, by the way — looks pretty slick.) I guess TL’s coverage tends (tends) to be in higher-profile places, but the number of people reading something is irrelevant here — it’s how much of it you, personally, have read. If you read all the TL/JDT coverage there is to read, you’ve read it, and that’s that, regardless of how many other people are in your position. Your ability to judge the work on its own merits has nothing to do with other people’s ability to do so, putting aside any feedback loop effects (which would simply feed back into the system as a sort of ‘coverage’ anyway).
I haven’t had any particular trouble with judging Justin Taylor’s work on its own merits. Nor have I had many difficulties where Tao Lin’s writing is concerned. They’re both brilliant writers. I don’t care how many people bandy their names about, even if it’s them (Tao Lin) doing the bandying.
I would also argue that Tao Lin’s work is not confined to his writing. He seems very much to be a constructed person. Tao Lin himself is Tao Lin’s overarching project (which, I think, is true of most people, even if they’re less overt in their exertions). Still, the writing can be ‘judged’ (or just, you know, ‘enjoyed’) on its own ‘merits’. I would argue that it modifies one’s perception of the overall Tao Lin project / brand more than it is modified in return.
attached this to the wrong comment. it’s a general response to the overall thread-thing.
If there’s no God, what else besides things/goods are people supposed to work for?
Objection. Sustained.
All this energy people spend is employment at will. If we’re losing Art to Entertainment, and if that’s a problem, Art may want to try a different approach than ‘come back here dammit I’m Art.’
anyway, DN, just try reading his stuff. and if you’re really tired of his personality-hemorrhaging (!), take the productive route — do or make something so good, or so interesting, that it drowns him out. you’ll undeniably achieve more that way than you will be just moaning.
of course, I’m being slightly presumptive. you might already be working on your masterplan.
(this isn’t actually sarcastic, other than, perhaps, on some very low and insignificant level)
Time heals all wounds. Just ask my pet rock, Mr Hula Hoop and that Echinacea over there
http://wiredforbooks.org/tamajanowitz/index.htm
Does work have its own merits too? I mean in addition to being its own reward.
TL is working for people, plain and simple. How and why I don’t know. But you can’t say it isn’t happening.
‘come back here dammit I’m Art.’
Nah. That’s a Capitalist suggestion/reaction; that have-it-your-way-on-a-bun Consumerpatilism is exactly what I’m arguing against when it comes to things more important than burgers. Fresh air and un-fucked-with food can’t say “come back here, dammit, I’m pre-late-stage-Capitalism”… that’s why fresh air and un-fucked-with food are almost gone from the Earth, too. Some stuff requires preservation *despite* its pathetic performance in the Market. But that’s just me struggling mightily to cast off my late-stage-Capitalism brainwashing.
(I won’t even try the always-inflammatory broccoli vs Skittles analogy…)
So much is happening. All the time. Everywhere. Hype is its own inescapable Artform now because people want things to work for them. Things not working is not an option.
Hi Steven. That’s so true, that so much is happening.
TL has simply asked that we pay attention, where ‘we’ is a set that includes Gawker, Melville House, the Observer, etc.
The usual thing is not to ask, but to assume that the light one gives off will attract attention on its own. Sometimes that happens too.
I noticed as I read the Lorentzen piece that even though I’ve never read anything of TL’s all the way through, I knew pretty quickly that Lorentzen didn’t really ‘sound’ like TL. Also, I was irritated to read fake-TL to the point of wanting to read real TL. This feeling passed. But I wondered.
For some reason I had to sit through a marketing thing at work once. Blah blah seven mentions blah blah favorability blah blah red black blah blah sex. It is sheer voodoo, just as most neuroscience is voodoo. And voodoo, you have to admit, gets your attention.
Yes, people want things to work for them. People are very busy working for things. People not working is not an option.
People spend all their energy working for goods… maybe a little energy is left working for love/understanding/ not-alone-ness. No energy is left for working for Art (ie, to achieve the fleeting joy of Aesthetic Enlightenment or Intellectual Pleasure). Art that requires No Work isn’t Art, it’s Entertainment. I think Entertainment is great/necessary… but my problem is that Entertainment, in the Age of No Time Left to Work for Art, is crowding Art out of the picture. Art is becoming a forgotten pleasure because it requires Work instead of giving us Easy (Passive) Enjoyment. Art is losing a War it is designed very precisely to never win. We are therefore losing Art. I think that sucks.
I think you might be oversensitive, DN, and perhaps overstimulated.
I think I see maybe 2/3 as many mentions of / interviews with / features on ‘JDT’ as I do on ‘TL’. (Nice acronym aesthetic you have go on here, by the way — looks pretty slick.) I guess TL’s coverage tends (tends) to be in higher-profile places, but the number of people reading something is irrelevant here — it’s how much of it you, personally, have read. If you read all the TL/JDT coverage there is to read, you’ve read it, and that’s that, regardless of how many other people are in your position. Your ability to judge the work on its own merits has nothing to do with other people’s ability to do so, putting aside any feedback loop effects (which would simply feed back into the system as a sort of ‘coverage’ anyway).
I haven’t had any particular trouble with judging Justin Taylor’s work on its own merits. Nor have I had many difficulties where Tao Lin’s writing is concerned. They’re both brilliant writers. I don’t care how many people bandy their names about, even if it’s them (Tao Lin) doing the bandying.
I would also argue that Tao Lin’s work is not confined to his writing. He seems very much to be a constructed person. Tao Lin himself is Tao Lin’s overarching project (which, I think, is true of most people, even if they’re less overt in their exertions). Still, the writing can be ‘judged’ (or just, you know, ‘enjoyed’) on its own ‘merits’. I would argue that it modifies one’s perception of the overall Tao Lin project / brand more than it is modified in return.
attached this to the wrong comment. it’s a general response to the overall thread-thing.
If there’s no God, what else besides things/goods are people supposed to work for?
Objection. Sustained.
All this energy people spend is employment at will. If we’re losing Art to Entertainment, and if that’s a problem, Art may want to try a different approach than ‘come back here dammit I’m Art.’
anyway, DN, just try reading his stuff. and if you’re really tired of his personality-hemorrhaging (!), take the productive route — do or make something so good, or so interesting, that it drowns him out. you’ll undeniably achieve more that way than you will be just moaning.
of course, I’m being slightly presumptive. you might already be working on your masterplan.
(this isn’t actually sarcastic, other than, perhaps, on some very low and insignificant level)
‘come back here dammit I’m Art.’
Nah. That’s a Capitalist suggestion/reaction; that have-it-your-way-on-a-bun Consumerpatilism is exactly what I’m arguing against when it comes to things more important than burgers. Fresh air and un-fucked-with food can’t say “come back here, dammit, I’m pre-late-stage-Capitalism”… that’s why fresh air and un-fucked-with food are almost gone from the Earth, too. Some stuff requires preservation *despite* its pathetic performance in the Market. But that’s just me struggling mightily to cast off my late-stage-Capitalism brainwashing.
(I won’t even try the always-inflammatory broccoli vs Skittles analogy…)