Tao asks Todd Hasak-Lowy tough questions about life and depression. The interview looks long on my computer monitor and requires several turns of the scroll wheel to see in entirety and I think I was “intimidated” by this length. That is the reason it took me so long to write this “review.” I still haven’t read all the comments actually because of my exhaustion at reading the interview.
First thing that strikes me is that Tao is interviewing an author that he likes. Indeed, Tao had previously wrote of his appreciation for Todd and I think even that Tao is “inspired” by the work of Todd. I suppose I should endeavour to conduct an interview with one of my literary heroes as Tao has and I haven’t but should have by now. Probably I would like to interview Tao first but absent that, I would gladly interview any reader of this blog as likely all readers are writers. Email taolinsuperfan@gmail.com for details.
Second thing that strikes me is that my brother knows Hebrew too!
Third thing that strikes me is that Tao and Todd make a good conversational pair. Even though this interview was conducted via email, I read every word while visualizing a scene set at Seward Cafe in Minneapolis. Tao and Todd were sitting at separate tables, discussing depression and Hebrew literature in raised voices. In the forefront, Bobby Billy Becker and others were discussing canvassing and train hopping in hushed voices. Outside of the frame of my visualization, I sat alone drinking coffee and eavesdropping on Bobby Billy Becker. I didn’t notice Tao and Todd for some reason.
Fourth thing that strikes me are the comments. At first people are talking about depression and different coping strategies. That is boring. Then some people talk about blogging and someone offers to “go back and forth” with Tao. That is also boring. Then Tao says smoking is bad vis-à-vis ZZ Packer. That is exciting. I think smoking is bad too vis-à-vis anything in general. Hopefully I will get a lot of comments. Some person called Fran writes an especially passionate comment about Tao’s lack of manners and calls him “Babe.” Tao responds thoughtfully and it makes me smile to read his reasoned response. Probably I should write painfully logical comments more often than I do now like Tao does and I don’t. I suspect that it may get me somewhere.
Fifth thing that strikes me are Tao’s increasing references to Lorrie Moore. They seem to be increasingly charming. Also there is an increasing likelihood that Lorrie Moore will “notice” the budding literary star of Tao Lin. I will venture to mention my heroes more often in comments and blog entries, probably.
Sixth thing that strikes me is the content of the interview. The large blocks of text initially intimidated me but after reading Todd’s answers I am left feeling that the interview was not particularly impressive. I probably could have guessed that Todd would have said the things that he said in response to the questions that Tao asked. I could have also guessed Tao’s questions. I don’t know if predictability should be a measure of an interview but I wonder now how I was exhausted by that interview. I think I will actually redact that earlier statement because probably I just made it up to make this story interesting. The interview reminds me of an interview I recently conducted for a music blog that I write. It was massively boring. I think that unless Tao and Todd were actually conversing at Seward Cafe or unless Tao and Todd had an extensive unpublished dialogue via email, that probably Tao and Todd also felt that the interview was “massively boring” but did it anyway because it is theoretically interesting to interview and be interviewed, as writers and by writers.
Tao explains why Lorrie Moore inspires him in a very inspiring fashion. Indeed, I feel quite inspired to read Lorrie Moore and to sell her products on Amazon using my Amazon affiliate code. I also feel an overwhelming desire to read more heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com as it will likely inspire me to accomplish things that Tao has and I haven’t but probably should have by now.
Reading about Tao’s inspiration and admiration of Lorrie Moore makes me think of his new book. Feels eerie to see this post at the same time that a book that best embodies Tao’s talents and realizations of inspiration and this sentence is making me nauseous. It is called Shoplifting from American Apparel. I read it one night in bed while my girlfriend was sleeping. She dislikes when I read while she is sleeping because sometimes the light wakes her. I feel that was the most appropriate setting for me to read Shoplifting from American Apparel.
The book is imminently practical and it made me laugh sometimes. I think a lot of people are saying that about Tao’s new book, that it makes them laugh. I agree. I liked to read words like “MySpace” and “Internet Explorer” and “Gmail” in print. Reading about the experiences of Sam and Luis made me feel like my life is “real” somehow, that maybe it’s OK to be “fucked” because at least you could write a story about it. It doesn’t have to be boring, the Internet experience. It depends on how you think about it and reading Shoplifting in American Apparel made me think about it in a more “real” sense.
Shoplifting in American Apparel is an excellent book and I think the Generations X-iPod would surely appreciate it’s wit. Back to Lorrie Moore, again, the blog Tao wrote in June 2005 about Lorrie Moore (again) is interesting because Tao eventually capitalized on the inspiration he derived from Lorrie Moore as per this blog by writing a book called Shoplifting in American Apparel. I think this is very uplifting but at the same time kind of weird to read in light of the prsent day situation. I am very happy for Tao though, for having been inspired by Lorrie Moore and I think I should write about who inspires me on my blog. Probably I would say Tao Lin, among others.
In conclusion, I wonder what Tao thought about Thomas Pynchon at the time of writing lorrie moore (again).
Tao “writes” to his great appreciation for Todd Hasak-Lowy’s book The Task of This Translator in this entry, noting that it is so “good” that it transcends “reviewing.” I think this book inspired Tao a great deal and likely he tried to mimic some of Todd Hasak-Lowy’s successes in writing stories and transcending criticism. Probably I should aspire to write books and blogs so well as to relegate my flaws to the bin of idiosyncratic missives and misunderstandings, like Tao has. At the end of the entry, Tao points out without comment a publication that pointless attempts to “review” The Tasks of This Translator. The implication seems to be that the publication is dumb/spam for “not getting” the book.
The comments on this entry are dumb/spam.
I thought Tao was going to tell a funny story about a bad housekeeping experience he had while on a reading tour, but instead he wrote some things about a book called Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. Didn’t see that coming, probably something I should keep in mind for my list of things to do that Tao has and I haven’t but should’ve. Surprises are the spice of life, or something.
Anyway, Housekeeping is not about Christianity.
The only noteworthy comment is the one left before Tao even completed writing the entry. Pretty rad. The other comments are long and probably about Christianity, unlike the book. This blog entry is also not about Christianity. I sense a lesson, but I’m not a religious sort so probably it is going over my head.
I’m not quite sure what this entry is about, so let’s skip to the comments.
Evidence of Tao’s burgeoning readership is plainly sighted as a person called billikenbluff compliments Tao’s “refreshing disregard” of punctuation and another person called Christine seeks to discover the true identity of a then-anonymous Tao. It seems that I should consider an equally refreshing disregard for punctuation and assume an anonymous voice if I should ever hope to do those things that Tao has done and I have not, though I should have by my estimation. Even Tao gets in on the action, pointing out via comment the deficiencies of the Blogger platform. In Tao’s comment, he suggests that it is too late to switch to Typepad so I’m guessing that this entry is not the fourth ever entry in Tao Lin’s blogging career and that he very likely deleted at a later date, a large number of his earlier writings. This is an important discovery as my blog archives are rife with amateur efforts and bad poetry written in the early stages of my blogging career. Likely this is an important step in achieving the fame and literary success that Tao has and I haven’t but should have.
Tao “reviews” some of Lorrie Moore’s books in this blog entry. I put the word “reviews” in quotations not to connotate some disconnection from the cliché concept of reviewing things on a blog, but rather because you can hardly call these “reviews” “reviews.” In Tao’s defense, he states at the outset that he is simply going to type about some of Lorrie Moore’s books. Maybe that is something that I haven’t done yet, but Tao has and I should have by now? I think his plan with this entry was to start striking his fingers to keys associated with letters that he thought might make an interesting story when strung together. I think in this case, the plan failed but Tao was still a young blogger. The story though seems to be that Tao likes the books of Lorrie Moore because they are depressing. Probably I should read more depressing books.
I think this entry is pretty boring. Tao talks about the book Good Morning, Midnight and defends the author against hypothetical charges that it is self-indulgent. Tao seems to think that people will not “get” the book and he does not “get” that. It is Tao’s belief that being sad in Paris is superior to doing drugs or violence. That seems true. Tao’s defense of Good Morning, Midnight is similar to arguments I have to employ when explaining why I like Eeeee Eee Eeee. Perhaps I am already doing something that I think I should have been doing by now anyway.
The comments are probably more boring than the entry. It’s pointless to elaborate. Worst heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com entry yet.
I think Tao is angry that Richard Yates and Daniel Alacorn make up characters based on their imagination instead of just writing about themselves. At the end, Tao starts talking about relativism and even says some things about using correct context. He still talks about that today like when he tells a four-year old that his favorite color is red. In the comments, some people called Pete and Sam confuse Tao’s maverick ways for absolutes and accuse him of classism and sexism. For some reason, Tao feels obligated to defend his opinion. That wouldn’t happen today, maybe not defending your relativist opinions is a key to doing those things which I have not done quite yet.
The middle is confusing because one moment he is telling about why The Easter Parade makes him feel good and not understanding who you are at age 50 and then the next moment he is talking about the Hispanic problem. I think Tao tries to connect these two issues by talking about imaginary people, but it’s sloppy.
Most interesting is Tao’s “discussion” concerning Homer with no one in particular at first but then a person going by the letter D suggests that Homer was blind and that it would be irresponsible for Tao to travel back in time to hand out “take down” pamphlets about an 8-year old boy. I don’t think it would be irresponsible for Tao to travel back in time to say some bad things about a young Homer because probably he is right that it would be more interesting to hear stories about throwing spears in a war from someone who actually did throw spears in a war, unlike Homer. I don’t know why Tao cares so much though, Homer is so long ago that it doesn’t really matter now if Homer really did fight in some wars or was blind. The past containing Homer may as well be all fiction, in which case the most interesting story teller is the one who can tell the story.
I think if this were Tao’s first entry, then it was a good first effort on a new blog. But I don’t think this is the real first entry of Reader of Depressing Books.
I think Tao Lin once did something in the course of many years “blogging” and writing at what was once The Reader of Depressing Books and is now heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com that I should have probably “done by now” but haven’t. The list of things that I should have done does not include the following:
In an effort to learn how to do that which Tao Lin has/I have not “done,” I will read, and in some cases re-read, every entry entered in the annals of heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com beginning with the easter parade by richard yates. Probably I will read proceeding entries in chronological order until I reach the present day, one per day or two. After reading each entry, I will “write” some things about the entry here so that I might be able to glean some essential information from all of the years of “blogging” and writing Tao has accomplished. You too can glean too. At the end of this project, Reader of hehehe, etc., .com will have as many entries as heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com plus this one.
