Approximately 3 single spaced pages “about me [Tao Lin]” will get me a book, which is valued at 10 dollars on Amazon. If I write this in less than an hour, I have exceeded my average rate of revenue of 10 dollars per hour. Once I receive the novella,  I will read it (after which I might not be inclined to write about it or Lin ever again) in the course of a couple hours, which will not be compensated for by money or a sellable object, but rather with a literary experience. In small part, I am shoplifting, or Melville House, who is sponsoring this, is taking something from me.

The book was released on September 15, 2009 as a part of the Art of the (Contemporary) Novella series published by Melville House. (I have only read Edith Wharton’s The Touchstone, of which I remember only the quotation on the back, which I think was about marriage. I love Edith Wharton, but the novella wasn’t amazing. I remember thinking it was sort of predictable. I didn’t record having read it on GoodReads, where I may have given it some stars and a blurb of my own for posterity. I do keep a list in a notebook of the books I’ve read in sequence and with the date completed that began May 2007 when I graduated from college and when my then boyfriend had a brain aneurysm. He is younger than Tao Lin.)

In most press about Tao Lin, some facts are repeated, so that I, who have actually never really read Tao Lin, because I haven’t seen his books at the library, know about him without having interacted with his product. That’s part of his schtick: celebrity. Here are some facts about Lin, and I do this as a metric of time I’ve spent/wasted on the internet.

• went to NYU
• vegan
• father is doctor or engineer
• used NYU library to write
• won undergrad fiction award
• lived or lives in Bushwick
• dated Ellen Kennedy, founded Muumuu House, published her book of poetry called “sometimes my heart pushes against my ribs,” which is thoroughly impressive and enjoyable
• wrote a novel called Richard Yates which isn’t out yet
• generates capital in creative ways

Although I have not read much of Tao Lin, I have read a little, and here’s how. His article on the levels of greatness American authors can attain is hilarious. I liked his piece in NOON. I saw him give a reading at a Todd Zuniga event at Happy Ending where I told him I read his blog and he gave me Ellen Kennedy’s book. I also saw Justin Taylor read that night and started to read HTML Giant forthwith. That’s where I read a “review” of SFAA that garnered some attention because it was an interesting and long gchat between Taylor and Drew Toal. I also read Lin’s piece in the Rumpus column “The Last Book I Loved” on Joy Williams’ “Honored Guest,” which I coincidentally had been reading. I appreciated that he took the assignment, which I take is quite loose, rather seriously, and I actually “got something out of” the review as opposed to many of that column which just say, “ra ra ra.” I also really like Joy Williams, but didn’t finish Honored Guest. It got depressing.

I knew about Tao Lin before the double release of Bed and EEE and read a couple pages of EEE at Green Apple Books and decided I wasn’t that into it, and thought it wasn’t worth the price because it would be over soon, and also because I’ve been suckered into so many books that weren’t worth it at Green Apple, like a hardcover edition of The Trouble with Diversity, and that one I did read and did like, unlike POWER, which I did neither of in full.

Why do I want to read Tao Lin? Because since dismissing him years ago, I have liked everything of his I read and because if every semi-big online magazine is going to interview and review him, shouldn’t I know what they are talking about? That’s why I went to see Where the Wild Things Are, and I’m glad for it. At McNally Jackson I read the opening pages of SFAA and thought I would enjoy reading the rest. Tao Lin may be annoying, but at least he’s saying something, unafraid to put aesthetic decisions on paper, unlike other fashionable people who display disdain for aesthetic declaration.

Another reason: Justin Taylor recommended him.

And another: I want to keep writing fiction. I think it’s fun and cool and perhaps, as Lydia Davis said in a recent underwhelming interview with Sarah Manguso in the Believer, is akin to going on a vision quest (which I did once but cheated the fast by eating blackberries). Since I like writing, I am concerned that Lin’s popularity is related to his strength as a social observer and writer, and therefore might be working with themes and language that are relevant to me as a member of a similar milieu of citizens, readers, and writers. I don’t want to mimic him without knowing I’m mimicking him. For example, the other day, I doubled up with my friend through a turnstile at Marcy on the J and got a ticket. I felt like a cheap bastard who might SFAA and I also feared that I couldn’t adequately write (ie not blog) about the experience without following a stylistic path blazed by Lin. Is he our Jack Kerouac whose “original blog drafts” will be released like the “original reel”?

Tao Lin can be credited with creating new genres. The genre of “writing about an author in order to read one of his books for the first time in toto.” He has helped usher in the gchat as a component to fiction and as a subgenre of “writing about an author in order to read one of his books for the first time in toto.”

On SFAA’s Brazilian River page a great blurb is at the top. “Tao Lin writes from moods that less radical writers would let pass—from laziness, from vacancy, from boredom. And it turns out that his report from these places is moving and necessary, not to mention frequently hilarious.”—Miranda July, author of No One Belongs Here More Than You. What a perfect choice for blurber. She has an annoying veneer, but once that pill is swallowed, it does wonders. A legitimate literary friend of mine really likes her. I read the first few pieces of NOBHMTY behind the register when I worked at a bookstore and thought they were fun but not amazing. However, I admired her story about Tom Cruise in the New Yorker and really enjoyed “Something That Needs Nothing,” which I read in an anthology. It’s a great story I think.

On his blog is a list of >1500 blog posts “about me.” It’s kind of like a live Twitter search, measuring who in the English reading world has time to write 1500 words for a free book by Tao Lin, and the results are fascinating and telling of the world we live in today. I particularly enjoyed Nikki Lentz who lives in Dresden and likes the same image of Adidas sneakers photographed by the Sartorialist as I did. She seems so alive, energetic enough to blog banal relationship anecdotes, which I liked reading, and which make me feel more alive and less apt to feel bored and lethargic, weighed down by the banality of my relationship and the weather here which is many degrees celsius more than it is there. I feel connected to the disaffected youth.

Which offers a response to a niggling question. Why does it feel wrong to like Tao Lin? I don’t think a single one of my friends has read Tao Lin or talked to me about Tao Lin (although somehow, when I read a few poems at a salon for the first time, I nervously said, I haven’t read before…something something… I might sound like Tao Lin..WTF, I don’t write poetry (hardly at all) or read his poetry, but in my nervousness of reading in front of people I thought my subpar reading would be excused if I dropped that name, as if to say that straightforward writing is okay, right now? I don’t know why I  did that, but I’m sure no one remembers it. I read the few poems and haven’t seen anyone who was there since except for the good friend who put me on the program without asking me. I liked reading my poems there even though for me poetry is a more blunt tool than fiction.) but something about his aura makes Tao Lin fandom a slightly somber enterprise. It’s like he wants your attention but doesn’t want it. He wants to manipulate you but disregards you at the same time. Give me money and read my blog (which so often disappoints). Know that I’m schtick, whether or not you like it.

But I like his name and  I like how he is associated with Melville house and started a press and does personable things like custom gift wraps books shipped to customers. He writes e-books and he generously gave me a nice book of poetry at Happy Ending. Maybe it feels weird to like him because of the uniqueness of his publicity campaign, which is written by him in the first person so often, instead of by a third party publicist or reviewer. Now many authors blog. People like stumbling onto authors they haven’t heard of.

Here are some people you might not have heard of:

HipHlawg - blog about rap and law

Gunomatopoeia - help find gunshot sound descriptions in music

The Dirty Pond - lit journal out of New Haven

Self Promotion - personal blog by friend who has a funny dad

I Peed my Cleats - the tumblr of a smart beautiful person

Ambient Bytes - the tumblr of a smart beautiful person with an iphone