A board favourite, Tao Lin. I didn't care for this. The whole story is steeped in that stilted, inauthentic hipster irony, as if he's telling it for shits and giggles. Minimal effort and it shows.

>>23543045
As an example of what I mean, here's one of his stories called Cancer.

The wife answered the phone. “You have cancer,” said the husband. “Do I have cancer or do you have cancer?” the wife said. She had just woken up and was confused. “We both have cancer,” the husband said. “What about Ignatio?” the wife said. Ignatio was the pet iguana. “Ignatio still has cancer,” the husband said. “You know that.”

The doorbell rang. The wife went to the door. It was a group of kids. Ten kids. And one adult. “All these kids have cancer,” the adult said.

“Do you have cancer?” the wife said.

“What the fuck do you think?” the adult said. “Yeah. I have cancer.”

The wife went back to the phone. “Your mom has cancer,” the husband said.

“My toothbrush has cancer,” the wife said, and got stomach cancer. “I just got stomach cancer.”

It's just shit.

>>23542999

It's nice. I would give it 9/10. I think he has written a few better pieces but this one is very good. I just think it wraps up a little too cleanly at the end. But overall, funny in a very creative way, earnest and very TAO LIN.

I prefer the one where his roommate gradually increases the volume of the little mermaid until it is earsplittingly loud

>>23543265
Agreed. Liked it a lot, but I don't think I've ever seen him write a convincing ending. One doesn't have to wrap things up neatly, but this just feels conceptually incomplete, unfinished, as if abandoned. This was also my experience with every one of his novels. Strange, because other than that I thought this story worked very well.

>>23543045
Hmm, in a way the story explicitly says it doesn't want to be ironic.
>He had difficulties in naming his dog. He didn’t want to be ironic or witty.
But there are things that could be viewed as ironic, like some of the 'absurdist' moments. I think it's more a 'battle' between irony and sincerity than one static mode, but overall I didn't really perceive the story as inauthentic. Neil's disorientation or 'alienation' seemed real overall and well observed.

>>23543496
Yeah, that one is good too. It's called "Mistake":

http://www.bearparade.com/todaytheskyisblueandwhitewithbrightbluespotsandasmallpalemoonandiwilldestroyourrelationshiptoday/2006/08/mistake.html

what's his appeal again?
people just enjoy clapping for autism don't they?
did the claps sound like rain, tao?

Perfect description of schizoid/schizotypy if i've ever seen one. But if he has it, how the hell does he manage to complete his writing while i can't seem to?