For the Voice of A Generation Tao Lin Doesn’t Say Much

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Tao Lin is everywhere: his books are on the bedside table of everyone with a fringe, his reviews (lauding or condemning) clutter blogs, and he rivals Lena Dunham as the proclaimed voice of Generation Y.

Despite all the noise surrounding him as 2013’s literary golden boy, he divides critics more than most best selling authors. His books and short stories draw so heavily from his own life some have described his long prose as affectless, while countless others (most under 40) see his disconnected worldview as the freshest representation of life in the Internet age.

Next month he’s in Melbourne as part of the Writers Festival for their Generation Now seminar. He’ll be talking about the things he covers best: digital media, connectivity, and how we “define the voice of a new generation”.

VICE: So people always talk about your relationship with technology, the media, the Internet, and this idea of you being a poster boy for the “connected” youth of today. It contrasts with your characters, especially Paul in Taipei, who seem pointedly disconnected from their surroundings. Do you feel “connected”?
Tao: Yeah, I don’t really listen to what people are talking about. I feel disconnected and I usually don’t understand what people are talking about.

In terms of one-on-one conversations?
Yeah. Or what I read on the Internet.

How’s that changed with your rising profile?
I think I believe things even less because I know myself better than I know other things. And when I read stuff about myself that I feel isn’t true I imagine that it must be that way for most famous people.

Is the media’s impression of you accurate?
I think it’s accurate in that it shows what whoever wrote the thing thinks about me, so it accurately shows that they’ve been given enough space to express themselves.

Are you sensitive to other people’s opinions?
No. No I don’t feel affected by other people’s opinions that much. Well I’m aware that I’m affected, even if it’s just everyone saying that a certain book is good.

People always talk about you as this young voice; do you think your reception will change as you get older?
I’m not worried. I don’t think people should be worried. I think people who have been following my career—I don’t think my themes have changed since I started writing. It’s the same things that writers I admire wrote about before they died, things like: memory, concrete reality versus imagination, time, and topics like that—but this is what I’ll be writing about when I’m 80.

Do you feel like a particularly modern writer?
This time I’m asked I’d probably say yeah, but normally I don’t think so. But I think yeah just because if the word modern means stuff that’s happening now or stuff that reflects now rather than historically, in those terms I’m modern.

So you’re a product of your generation.
Yeah but those aren’t the things I care about in the writing, like I don’t have an analysis of what’s different between now and 100 years ago. I’ve kind of just accepted that it’s the same; the things I care about are the same now as they were 100 years ago so I’m not even analyzing that, I’m just focused on the thing that has stayed the same.

What is that thing that stayed the same?
Just that people are born and then they have certain desires throughout their life to reproduce and survive but there are things you want more than just to satisfy those desires and then die—just questions surfacing out of those topics.

When people talk about you and there is so much focus on this modern aspect, is that frustrating to you when you don’t approach your work like that?
It can be frustrating sometimes yeah, but I’ve accepted that, that’s just how it is. I don’t think I can change that.

Changing the topic a little bit, a lot of your books deal with drugs and there is a lot of focus on that in reviews. Does that part of your life play a role in your writing?
I view it all as just part of my life whether it’s writing a book or an email or thinking or anything like that, so it’s all just part of the same thing.

How tied in are drugs to your work? If you stopped taking drugs tomorrow would your work change?
Yeah it would change. It would change just because—well I don’t view drugs as a thing I would stop or keep going with just because there’re so many different kinds of drugs and then there’s the question about if food or other things can be considered drugs. So if I viewed myself as stopping using drugs I would be writing about that so that would effect my writing in that I am just going to write what I am thinking about.

Your characters do have this kind of listlessness about them, and boredom seems to be a pretty big theme; do you feel bored yourself?
No. I don’t ever feel bored, I don’t have a definition of that word.

Do you ever worry about being boring?
Yeah.

Why is that?
Just because I don’t want other people to feel that they want to get away from me. I guess I only mostly feel that when I am in person talking to someone, but if I am writing a book I’m not sure if I think that because it’s the persons choice. They can stop reading it whenever they want to, but in person I definitely think that.

But that doesn’t translate to the way you write?
No. I don’t think someone’s going to be forced to read this. I think they can stop whenever they want.

A lot of your work does contain so much information and some of it does seem like it’s supercilious. Why include so much detail?
I don’t know.  Well to me like every sentence is a detail, or ever word is a detail, so the only way I judge that is by how long the book is. But I definitely try not to include stuff that isn’t going to contribute to the overall effect of the book.

Are you an attention seeker?
I try not to get attention just for the sake of attention. Something has to first feel like it’s a mean to its own end and not to something else. It has to feel like it is what I am expressing before I feel it’s okay to do.

There’s been a lot of focus on how you use social media, and how much of yourself you put yourself out there. Isn’t that a way of seeking attention?
I think it’s just normal. Most people that aren’t writers have Twitter accounts, and they Facebook, and they write posts about what they are doing. I don’t think I do it anymore than that. If I wasn’t doing Twitter or Facebook it’ll be the equivalent of someone living in a cave.

You put so much into your characters, a lot of them seem like they are nearly autobiographical. Is it hard for you, who seems pretty shy, to lay yourself out like that?
No because I’m shy in person but if no one’s watching me I feel more comfortable being open about myself.

Is writing about yourself cathartic?
It feels, I wouldn’t say cathartic, but it feels satisfying.

I was wondering, do you consider Taipei a love story?
Well I think there’s a love story in it but I wouldn’t call it a love story. Because it shows the end of one relationship and then it shows another relationship that doesn’t fully begin and then it shows one that goes, “I’ll wait till marriage” then starts deteriorating but it doesn’t just show one of them. Those are just parts of the book so I wouldn’t call it a love book.

Do you consciously avoid sentiment?
I don’t think I do that actually. But that’s what almost all people think I am like in my writing. But there are so many sentences that are about feelings and it seems like it shows a lot of feelings.

Do you consider yourself romantic?
I don’t know what that word means.

Another thing that I noticed is there are several parts in Taipei where there is an emotional beat and you of expect Paul to get angry or frustrated and he just grins. Is that a part of you? 
I’m pretty chill I think. You’ll never see me really angry and I like people who are like that, and I try to be like them but I wasn’t always like that. I made a conscious effort with people.

Do fans in the street approach you?
No I can walk around and maybe one person will come up to me a month but people will message me and email me, message me on Facebook and email me. Probably like once every day on average.

Do you ever write back to them?
I write back to most of them. I flag each email and plan to write back to most of them. I usually just say thank you.

When someone emails you like that, what does it feel like?
Depends the kind of email they send. Sometimes they send really long emails and I just feel like I don’t know what to say. But sometimes it will say, “I’m just emailing you to say I like your book” or whatever and that feel sort of nice. I’ve emailed writers I like so I can understand.

When people send you those really long emails do you feel close to them or is it strange having that intimacy with someone you’ve never met?
It feels both, because I’ve sent really long emails before to writers I don’t know. I did that a few times in college so I can understand what they’re feeling when they send it but I’m uncomfortable sending those emails, so it feels like both.

Do you ever go back and read past work? Do you enjoy it?
Yeah most of the time I enjoy it. Most of the time I am impressed because when I am away from it I think I just think it is bad so when I read it, it seems better then I thought.

Why do you think it’s bad?
Maybe just because I’m critical of myself, because I know when I am very critical I will work harder.

For more Tao Lin:

Lost In A Loop: A Chat With Andrew Bujalski About "Computer Chess" And Other Things

Taipei Babies

Drug-Related Photoshop Art