Tao Lin (b. 1983) is the author of Richard Yates (2010), Shoplifting from American Apparel (2009), Bed (2007), three other books.

His third novel will be published by Vintage in 2013.

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1 February 12
1 February 12

Reblogged: taketheatrain

1 February 12
Tags: books
30 January 12
27 January 12
DO NOT EMAIL PEOPLE PRESSURING THEM TO RESPOND TO YOUR EMAILS

When interacting with someone, or thinking about interacting with someone, assume that your existence does not benefit them, that they don’t want to interact with you, that interacting with you is not one of their evolutionary or existential needs. Doing this will cause you to be more considerate, more inclined to improve yourself so that you may become more desirable and have a larger chance of being reciprocated, and less likely to resent the other person when they don’t reciprocate your affection or communications in an equal or—in especially belligerent cases—greater manner.

Be aware that if someone has not responded to your email or Facebook message they either don’t want to or simply haven’t done it yet, naturally and without ill-will, due to the nature of time and space, that one unit of matter cannot occupy more than one space at one time and that time is unidirectional, which results in “having priorities”—an unavoidable method of existence for non-schizophrenic humans that, in its more deliberate forms, is inherently considerate, in part because it decreases the chances of misleading people. Be aware that someone may not respond to your email even if you are amazingly considerate to them (via never pressuring them to respond to you, continuing to support their endeavors in a non-pressuring manner by participating non-pressuringly in their projects, never expressing or implying they’re causing you to feel sad or lonely or abandoned or unimportant) for 15 years after sending your email. If this happens do not feel negatively toward the other person; try to focus on liking someone for reasons that aren’t “because they like me” or “because they’re giving me attention.”

Accepting non-reciprocation quietly, without suddenly and nonsequiturly “hating” the person, is not only considerate but also productive, in that it’s probably the most effective, if not the only, way to “convince” the other person—some day, maybe, in some form—to sincerely reciprocate. If you feel jealous of who or what has been prioritized over you, or if you begin to feel resentment toward the person who isn’t reciprocating your affections, then you’re operating on the assumption that you own someone or that you’re defaultedly owed things and are being “cheated” out of those things—that the other person, or the universe, is “wronging” you. Behaving in this manner is illogical (in part because if people owned what they desired you would need to continually relent your desires to be someone else’s possession) and will cause people to dislike you and want to disassociate from you, increasing the amount of emails you send that receive no response.

— Tao Lin, How To Be Considerate On The Internet on Thought Catalog (via thoughtcatalog)

Reblogged: thoughtcatalog

27 January 12
“upside-down cross friends” (via hihihihihihihihihiiihihihihihihihhi.com)

“upside-down cross friends” (via hihihihihihihihihiiihihihihihihihhi.com)

26 January 12
“religiously confused lemur” (via hihihihihihihihihiiihihihihihihihhi.com)

“religiously confused lemur” (via hihihihihihihihihiiihihihihihihihhi.com)

24 January 12
vicemag:


A cat that woke 4 minutes ago from a nightmare in which he was on extremely large doses of Xanax and Adderall and alcohol at a Christmas party, embarrassing himself in front of his owners and owners’ friends and relatives and all their children by repeatedly rubbing his crotch against people’s heads and faces (by climbing sofas and tables and jumping onto people’s shoulders and clutching their necks and heads or leaping directly toward the heads and faces of small children) while obliviously meowing in an extremely loud, nearly non-stop, frighteningly unseemly manner. His “suspicious” expression and somewhat “stricken” posture (as depicted above) has been sustained without change for almost the entire 4 minutes since waking, during which he has been replaying and studying certain details from his nightmare in an effort (involving decreasing confidence, in part because he has been staring across the room at a Christmas tree that has seemed increasingly dream-like) to confirm, to any believable degree, that it really was a nightmare and not something that happened last night or a few nights ago.
Previously - Gollum’s “Suicide Stash”
@tao_lin
http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/

vicemag:

A cat that woke 4 minutes ago from a nightmare in which he was on extremely large doses of Xanax and Adderall and alcohol at a Christmas party, embarrassing himself in front of his owners and owners’ friends and relatives and all their children by repeatedly rubbing his crotch against people’s heads and faces (by climbing sofas and tables and jumping onto people’s shoulders and clutching their necks and heads or leaping directly toward the heads and faces of small children) while obliviously meowing in an extremely loud, nearly non-stop, frighteningly unseemly manner. His “suspicious” expression and somewhat “stricken” posture (as depicted above) has been sustained without change for almost the entire 4 minutes since waking, during which he has been replaying and studying certain details from his nightmare in an effort (involving decreasing confidence, in part because he has been staring across the room at a Christmas tree that has seemed increasingly dream-like) to confirm, to any believable degree, that it really was a nightmare and not something that happened last night or a few nights ago.

Previously - Gollum’s “Suicide Stash”

@tao_lin

http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/

Reblogged: vicemag

22 January 12

Reblogged: muumuuhouse

20 January 12

(Source: walterdavis)

Reblogged: walterdavis

19 January 12
Le Monde published 3 reviews (1, 2, 3) of French “Richard Yates”

Le Monde published 3 reviews (1, 2, 3) of French “Richard Yates”

18 January 12
Hamster sky-diving without a parachute.
(a previously unreleased Drug-Related Photoshop Art “b-side”)

Hamster sky-diving without a parachute.

(a previously unreleased Drug-Related Photoshop Art “b-side”)

Tags: hamster art
14 January 12
They felt so sad that they believed a little that it was their year to be sad, which made them feel better in a devastated, hollowed-out way. Life was too sad and it was beautiful to really feel it for once; to be allowed to feel it, for one year.

Reblogged: gutsyhejira

11 January 12
vicemag:


Gollum staring at his “stash,” which he has built up from nothing by working minimum wage for 18 months at Taco Bell while spending 65% of his income on skin care products that his co-workers and managers have mandated he apply twice daily (Gollum isn’t bitter about this, he actually agrees; as an undocumented immigrant he also has no choice, he knows, but to agree), a few minutes before ingesting all of it in an earnest effort to kill himself. Fortunately (for his co-workers, who depend on him to accomplish 95% of manual labor at Taco Bell) he will panic and call 911 and live, waking in a hospital 3.5 hours later (2.5 hours after his 911 call is posted on Gawker) with $53,208.79 in medical bills.
@tao_lin
heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com
Previously – Largest Xanax

vicemag:

Gollum staring at his “stash,” which he has built up from nothing by working minimum wage for 18 months at Taco Bell while spending 65% of his income on skin care products that his co-workers and managers have mandated he apply twice daily (Gollum isn’t bitter about this, he actually agrees; as an undocumented immigrant he also has no choice, he knows, but to agree), a few minutes before ingesting all of it in an earnest effort to kill himself. Fortunately (for his co-workers, who depend on him to accomplish 95% of manual labor at Taco Bell) he will panic and call 911 and live, waking in a hospital 3.5 hours later (2.5 hours after his 911 call is posted on Gawker) with $53,208.79 in medical bills.

@tao_lin

heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com

Previously – Largest Xanax

Reblogged: vicemag

10 January 12
Themed by Hunson. Originally by Josh