""A story assembled from everyday objects, unassumingly and quietly, that stuns and horrifies by increments...The Canal may look, at first glance, like a love story, but it harnesses the power of parable." John Wray, author of Lowboy.
Friday, 11 December 2009
Tao Lin . . .
‘A kind of themelessness . . .’
Tao Lin speaking about his latest book (and his previous books). What is noticeable in this interview is how in control Tao Lin is. He is a writer who knows exactly what he is doing. It has nothing to do with his age. So many people focus on his age. It is to do with the understanding of philosophy and fiction, and more importantly (for writers such as Tao Lin) a deep understanding of fiction, what fiction is, its limitations, its failings. Tao Lin is trying, with language, to express something we felt pre-language. He is like Beckett in this ontological understanding of things. Tao Lin is interested in the seeing of things . . . Like Beckett, Tao Lin senses things, rather than wastes time with words trying to describe them.
It is of no surprise, then, when Tao Lin says ‘maybe the next stage is to not write a book . . .’
*
