Comments on: Friday

By: mal

mal — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 00:55:04 +0000

i don’t like the people that comment on your writing. they think they’re deep. i feel like i’m in sophie’s class. in hell. listening to people think they’re smart.

By: garnet

garnet — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 13:58:52 +0000

I’m left uncomfortably empty. I thought I recognized myself, and I was afraid.

By: beth

beth — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 12:35:10 +0000

Disturbed because of the starkness and loneliness it expressed – and impressed by the way the spareness of your writing contributed to that tone of the self, alone.

Thanks for describing how you wrote it – I’m not surprised – this piece has the spontaneity of good calligraphy or other artforms where the honed craft, zen-like, becomes secondary but always available, letting the artist use the inspiration freely and fully. The second attempt usually doesn’t make it.

By: moose

moose — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 10:45:32 +0000

My mother died yesterday, or was it the day before…

I am reminded.

Stark.

By: the sylph

the sylph — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 10:37:15 +0000

This is fresh and new and appears to be true. I too seek the new for kicks. I could never not read about clothed frottage if I saw it was up to something. Knowing when to leave it alone is an art, thank-you Tao Lin

By: leslee

leslee — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:13:20 +0000

“I thought before writing down each sentence.” If only everyone did that!

Yeah, before speaking, too. ;-)

I really enjoyed reading this piece. I laughed out loud at several points. I suppose the humor is a combination of recognition and unexpected – inconsequential mundane things not unlike things I’ve done (I’ll leave out which of these I’m talking about!), and the unexpected, straight-faced reporting of them.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 08:59:15 +0000

If I may be so bold, I think the key to Tao Lin’s success here, as in many of the other things he’s written, is that he rigorously avoids using received phrases and ideas (such as “if I may be so bold” and “the key to X’s success”). “I thought before writing down each sentence.” If only everyone did that!

By: whiskey river

whiskey river — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 07:55:35 +0000

I like this story because it sounds exactly like ‘writing the stuff that comes out of your head’, but there is such an element of ease to it that it becomes suspicious of having been carefully thought out. The suspicion seems to linger, seeking out some other, more reasonable explanation. Maybe it’s some kind of a contradiction, it couldn’t possibly be what it appears to be. That’s what I like about it the most. It’s a shape shifter.

By: patry Francis

patry Francis — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 19:47:00 +0000

I like the rhythm and progression of this, the voice. Still, I prefer songs that say, “I can fall in love, I can dive in love, I can swim in love.”

By: Tao Lin

Tao Lin — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 19:20:04 +0000

Here’s exactly how I wrote this:

I was bored and it was late. I felt restless. But it was like 4 a.m. and raining outside and I was alone. I got a notepad. I thought about what happened to me today. The things that I remembered I remembered because they’d affected me in some way. So I wrote down what I remembered. After I finished, I was like, “That’s pretty strange and good.” It took about five or ten minutes. I thought before writing down each sentence.

I tried to write another one. I finished it, but it wasn’t as good. I tried again, and this one was even less good. They were both as long, and the same sort of thing, but not good.

I went back to this one. I crossed out two sentences. The next day I typed it onto the computer. I added paragraph breaks.

A while later I added more paragraph breaks.

Beth, what do you mean “Disturbed?”