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Friday, May 2, 2008

Tao Lin and the Internet Freakouts

posted by on May 2 at 16:21 PM

books-500.jpg

Jesus Christ, people! Seventy-somthin’ somethin’ comments on a post about Tao Lin’s feature this week! Lin does seem to be a bit of an inter-web lightning rod. In June of last year, Gawker had it out with Tao Lin:

Tao Lin, I know you’re reading this. I just want you to know that because of your ill-conceived self-marketing strategy, you have 100% guaranteed that I will never read your damned book with its oh-so-wacky title…Your publicity games aren’t a play on fame-seeking or celebrity culture. Actually, you’re maybe perhaps the single most irritating person we’ve ever had to deal with—and you wouldn’t believe our in-box. Stop it. Stop it now. And now we will go back to never mentioning you again.

but then they pardoned him for the piece that he wrote for us back in November, about the varying levels of greatness that American writers can attain.

Then he got into a fight with n+1 by printing his entire correspondence with editor Benjamin Kunkel. He also ran some of an e-mail that was probably not intended for him:

Well, I read or tried to read Tao Lin’s story. It’s not horrible, nor horribly written—some of it is pretty nice—but I found it over-rhetorical, full of the deliberate whimsy afflicting many of our younger writers, and it seemed kind of aimless too, although I might not have thought so if I’d read through to the end.

And then he or a friend of his might have accidentally called someone a faggot.

I just read a little of that right before going to a reading at Melville House where Tao was in the lineup—I hadn’t seen him in maybe six months. Weirdly, he read a story with me in it as a character, incorporating my emails and gmail chats. Afterward I finished reading the comments and they seemed so exasperatingly stupid/ugly that I posted, “Judgments of quality aside, many people posting here in “defense” of Tao could stand to be a lot less obnoxious about it…” A couple minutes later—although I didn’t see it until the next afternoon—Zachary German wrote, “you are a faggot…you have sex with other gay men like yourself” on my blog, and then “syke.”

On Eric’s blog, Tao said, “i don’t approve of calling people faggots…” When I noted that his friend Zachary German had just called me a faggot, Tao said, “he typed that as a ‘joke’ just to show me on the screen then i accidentally pushed ‘enter’ or something.” Accidentally! I’m laughing.

The comments for all of these posts are numerous and fervent. All of which is to say that apparently, Tao Lin is the master of the Internet.

RSS icon Comments

1

Benjamin Kunkel is my brother's name! Not the same one though...

Posted by Chris | May 2, 2008 4:45 PM
2

No.

Posted by Jason Josephes | May 2, 2008 4:46 PM
3

Between Tao Lin's work and Aliza Shvarts' abortion-themed senior thesis at Yale, I think it's safe to say that shameless self-promotion is the only true art form of the modern age.

Posted by Dawgson | May 2, 2008 5:15 PM
4

Tao Lin just defeated Slog.

Posted by kid icarus | May 2, 2008 5:32 PM
5

Who the fuck is Tao Lin?

Posted by Hey wait! | May 2, 2008 5:56 PM
6

it was a crappy piece. this sort of affected whimsy is sooooo over.

Posted by brett | May 2, 2008 5:59 PM
7

I'll take him over ecce whatshisname.

Posted by tsm | May 2, 2008 6:22 PM
8

Yeah. Never mind that 90% of those comments were about how full of shit he is. By those standards, ECB is hands-down the master . . . of nothing. Go jerk yerself off and report back to us later. As if that's fucking newsworthy.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | May 2, 2008 6:35 PM
9

Tao Lin read at KGB bar tonight. Someone threw a scallion at him or a bundle of scallions.

Posted by average man | May 2, 2008 10:19 PM
10

Tao Lin will never be as incoherent and generally asinine as unPC or that Daniel choad.

Posted by Greg | May 2, 2008 10:45 PM
11

choad

Posted by brandon | May 2, 2008 11:33 PM
12

I knew Tao well a few years ago after he graduated and before he left New York for a couple months. At first he seemed nice but eccentric but it became clear over time that he was a truly nasty, conniving, and self-absorbed person.

Posted by Michael | May 3, 2008 12:44 AM
13

I like Tao Lin. He gave me free books and money for the "intern" work I did for him. He is also extremely handsome and he has a smooth, calm, and silvery kind of voice. His books inspire me to have better relationships and not try to be god over people. And I made some friends through him. I don't know about these so-called "eccentricities" of his that supposedly annoy people. I think people who talk unsarcastic shit about Tao are just unhappy or something. He's a really nice guy.

Posted by Justin Dobbs | May 3, 2008 10:08 AM
14

Wow. I defended Tao in the original thread, but he really needs to distance himself from this Zachary douche. If you use the Internet for most of your marketing, you've got to realize the Internet can give you bad PR, too. Having a friend/ally who is an unapologetic Kramer of the Internet isn't helping you sell books.

Original thread:

eat a dick fagtron

Haha. Hilarious. I've got some ideas for some funny jokes you can post on blackplanet.com or feministing.com too, but I'm sure you already think them.

Posted by poppy | May 3, 2008 10:31 AM
15

If by the "Internet" you mean "spam" ... then, yes, Tao Lin is the Master.

Posted by Will in Seattle | May 3, 2008 6:20 PM
16

Original epithets from Lin & Friends here:
http://myheartsporch.blogspot.com/2008/04/future-of-literature.html

Posted by Colin C. | May 3, 2008 8:58 PM
17

This is really weird. I know Zachary. I did not expect to see him on this blog.

He's a little sarcastic but he's not homophobic. He's nice to gay me and my gay friends. I think he's actually a little bit gay or bi or something. I wish. Whatever. He's cute. He's a nice guy.

The internet is really weird.

Posted by What the | May 3, 2008 11:51 PM
18

The comments on Tao's blog get better and better:

[in response to poppy's comment about gay jokes]

Tao Lin said...
my facebook profile says 'gay-friendly, clean, allergic to cats'

i gave gary some stickers damien

9:40 PM
damienlol said...
i bet you did, he probably stuck them on the wall next to the shrine he has ERECTED (GET IT LOLO) in your name.

OMG, the future of literature is LOL.

Posted by Dawgson | May 4, 2008 9:18 AM
19

so all it takes to be the master of the internet is to be

a. a troll
b. friends with the stranger staff or freelance writer for the stranger.

arent reporters supposed to rise about incestuous self promotion?

Posted by Bellevue Ave | May 4, 2008 12:37 PM
20

I know Zachary German too, he isn't homophobic, he is just a creepy person. He is sycophantic and weaselly and desperate to be liked. He imitates Tao Lin and "acts out" to get Tao Lin's approval and attention. Tao Lin loves attention and "followers" so he encourages German. German is four or five years younger.

Posted by Collie | May 4, 2008 11:43 PM
21

Stop feeding the King of the Trolls...

Posted by michael strangeways | May 5, 2008 9:24 AM
22

Tao Lin never talks about his father's imprisonment for fraud and money laundering and both his parents' problems with the SEC that led them to flee the country with a civil lawsuit hanging over them for the $1.5 million they stole.

See this news articles and SEC filing:

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2002/12/16/daily53.html

http://www.secinfo.com/d1zw6u.z6.htm (note mention of "Tao Enterprises")

That is where Tao Lin learned his ethics.

Posted by defrauded | May 5, 2008 11:17 AM

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