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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Books This Week in the Book Section

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 3:37 PM

This week in the book section, Corey Kahler interviews Shoplifting from American Apparel author (and controversial Stranger contributor) Tao Lin. Here's just a tiny piece:

[Shoplifting had] instances where people meet online, and when they [eventually] meet in person there's a difference between these two relationships. Were you trying to highlight that difference?

Even if they are different, which they probably are, I wasn't trying to show anything like that. I don't want to focus on sociological or technological matters. I don't have anything I want to say on that. I'm sure it's different. But when people read Kafka or something and he has a thing where someone's talking on the phone, people don't really focus on how the phone is different than talking in person. They just focus on the other stuff. And that's what I want to focus on.

You've done a lot with blogging and different types of publishing. Do you see writing shifting online more and do you see that changing things, even if it doesn't change relationships?

I don't see writing going online. I don't know how someone could make money from writing online. Even [online] magazines like Nerve.com, which is just sex stories, I don't think they really make more [than print magazines]. I just don't think people can make money online. I can't tell the future, but I doubt it.