The Atlantic just did a little piece about Tao Lin here. Apropos of an article Lin published a couple weeks ago about being arrested for trespassing, the Atlantic’s Hua Hsu writes: “The piece gives you a good sense of Lin’s writerly persona—his prose is placid, spare, vaguely hypnotic, “possibly” “ironic,” and he’s faintly self-obsessed but in a harmless, almost banal way.”
Most interesting, though, are these observations from Hsu:
“Why is Lin so polarizing? The comments that follow the Gawker “piece” are generally annoyed or sarcastically dismissive, which is expected given how long and gossip/link-free it is. But is Lin’s writing, as the detractors say, truly narcissistic or selfish? What does it mean to be narcissistic enough to be branded a narcissist, when we are all in the business of cultivating online followers and friends, issuing steady streams of news releases about our wavering moods? There’s something refreshing to me about Lin’s writing, the way it manages to be wholly about him, but deny our craving for interiority or motive.”
5 responses
Is it really necessary to know all that much about Tao Lin before we read his book? I’m getting the feeling that the persona is more important than the work. And I’m already getting turned off by it, whereas usually I’ll take on any sort of writing with an open and eager mind.
Trust the art, not the artist, all that. All this “Look at Tao Lin He’s So Rad!!” is starting to get on my nerves.
No, not necessary! But Hsu described his writing really well also.
Yeah, he says his writing is “wholly about him, but deny our craving for interiority or motive.â€
Not a blurb I’d want on the back cover of my book, but maybe that’s just me.
I read Eee eee eee and didn’t hate it. But this whole Tao Lin thing is looking more and more to me like performance art than literature. Or “writing” even.
x0x0x,
un-hip to the max
Heh, yeah but it’s a perfect description! Speaking of careers as performance art, you should check out the profile of James Franco in New York magazine … I’m going to post something about it on the blog today sometime.
Check out Jame Franco in Gary Shteyngart’s (sp?) Book Trailer for Super Sad True Love Story (sic?)! It’s a hoot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfzuOu4UIOU
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