Why People Care Too Much About Right vs. Wrong, Art vs. Garbage
Sunday, March 13th, 2011…when it’s all the same thing? Or just entirely subjective.
In the episode of “Shitstorm Alberto”, where Brandon Scott Gorrell critiques negative reviews of Tao Lin’s “Shoplifting from American Apparel”, the ugly appearance of nitpicky, big headed ‘artists of language’ clash over what ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t be’ an accomplishment of writing. The clash affects HTMLGIANT’s servers, which is why this (often seen/assumed as) ‘elite’, ‘hip’ circle of authors of online literature is brushed off as such. Seattle’s own The Stranger has published its own piece about Tao Lin (written by Tao Lin)– where the only rebuttal he may hint at towards the ‘haters’ and some extremely negative receptions from those who only believe in their kind of beauty in literature is an extremely neutral facial expression and his priority of gazing at hamsters over worrying about these responses at all.
Before I read Tao Lin, many of his sentiments regarding his perspective of the world and his place in it had already existed in my own life. When college ends and you’re left alone to join the rat race, the usual expectations would be to get a job, earn money, be respectable. “Love, Laugh, and Live“, which is the most ridiculous and surreal collage of sentiments set in the ugliest font and commodified to thousands of cheese-mongerers, unquestioning, robot-like complacent in the norms of a society that seeps its money-making values into the corners of every brain– it’s difficult to find exactly who a person is when life immerses you in constant conflict, suffering through desire, and an endless state of becoming, and never being, as Plato says.
Which is why the extremely neutral facial expression is all the more important. While others upholding romantic beauties of vivid, flowery language, or literature that absolutely has to “question” something to have any intrinsic value might see this constant feedback of monotonous, neutral expression as a bland reproduction of the world, they’re not getting the implied back story of any “neutral facial expression”. Lin makes a point to express “neutrality”; this itself is ironic because it implies indifference, but expressing neutrality requires effort. Expressing neutrality is the conscious decision to not care, or even perhaps acknowledge that there are millions of possible futures and histories that may occur with any conscious decision. Because of these endless possibilities and the lack of control over what does or does not happen, the overwhelming feeling of indifference, that nothing really matters, reflects itself in neutral facial expression.
This universe of neutrality also reflects itself in Tao Lin’s writing. His personal accounts are stated as facts. The world of literature is often traditionally seen as drawn out, overexpressive, where each sentence is a secret, symbolic meaning. You can analyze anything to bits, but the refreshing aspect of Tao Lin’s writing is the simple conveyance of information– often because of the deadpan simplicity, it’s easier to become amused and immerse yourself in the curious hilarity of the world that surrounds us, that surrounds Tao Lin.
His poem, “I Went Fishing With My Family When I Was Five” is known for his 7 minute live repetitive reading of “The next night we ate whale” is frankly, hilarious. The humor is obvious– it’s simple, and manifests itself through the interaction and feelings of the reader or audience as the repetition wears on. Those who dismiss it as “annoying” have also been affected by the fact that the fictional whale-catch was probably an unknown mistake: they’re tired of it. (Gawker publicly publishes its mini-battles against Tao Lin, as I believe he targeted their building/door with Britney Spears stickers in a stunt to promote his book of poetry, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy– in turn, they despise/draw attention to/promote his activities).
As in the art world, the arguments against or for certain types of art is relatively futile. It doesn’t matter. An attempt to rally opinions to lean the ‘correct’ way is equally just as futile: everything is arbitrary in perspective and relativity. Art as expression, and writing as expression, is not governed by correctness: in fact, the comparison of the differences are what make these pieces valuable. I admire Tao Lin’s writing because of it’s audacity to reflect on raw feelings and convey them in images or social situations, whether or not they may be logical, expected, or unexpected. It captures my own reality: a private, quiet struggle between a micro-and macrocosmic perspective of the world; why things don’t matter, and why decision-making in my life seems altogether a pointless, direction less flow-chart that is less interesting than the internet.
