Saturday Flash Interview: Shoplifting from Tao Lin

The author of four books, the most recent Shoplifting from American Apparel, Lin's gotten a lot of attention recently, both for his writing and his internet stunts (his latest involved auctioning off 30-minute G-mail chats while he was on various drugs.)

Hijinks aside, the man can write. Pick up his collection Bed, and the story "Love is a Thing on Sale for More Money Than There Exists" will prove it.

So what's his deal? FFN asked him a few questions.

FFN: How long did it take you to write Shoplifting from American Apparel, and how long did you shoplift from American Apparel before
you wrote it?

Lin: I think ~500 hours over ~9 months. I think I've shoplifted from American Apparel maybe three times.

FFN: How often do you write and what’s your editing process like?

Lin: I write every day, except for days when I'm on book tour or I have just met someone, a girl, and I'm hanging out with them a lot
romantically. Also if a book I have written has recently been published I don't write every day, except promotional things like emails and blog posts and tweets, or something. When I am working hard on a book I write, or think about the book, or edit, ideally, the entire day, like 10-12 hours. My editing process, for short stories
and novels, is to repeatedly go from the beginning to the end of the piece on the computer screen and on pieces of paper that I have printed, writing notes and edits and occasionally focusing on certain sections, adding and removing and rearranging things.

FFN: Do you have any pets? What do you long for most in the world?

Lin: I don't have pets. As a child in Florida my household had two toy poodles.
I'm not sure what I long for most in the world. During each moment it changes from things like certain kinds of foods to itching my leg to being asleep to hugging someone, to [many other things], I think.

FFN: What’s the last greatest thing you ever read in your entire life? Did it make you swoon and did you recommend it to friends?

Lin: I'm not sure. I don't think I have viewed a thing of writing as "the greatest thing" in a long time, not because I don't like things a lot, but because I feel like calling something "great" is sort of implying that certain other things are "really bad," which I feel like I want to refrain from doing, due to wanting to view art as completely subjective. To view art as being not "good" or "bad" but completely a matter of preference, I just say that "I like [whatever thing]" instead of calling it good or great.
I like and am excited by certain books, but I don't "love" them, I think. I maybe "love" one person at a time, and I don't think my feelings of "love" extend to works of art. I don't know if I could "swoon" from liking something. I don't
think writing has ever made me "swoon" or anything. I like recommending what I like to friends. Maybe the last thing I recommended to a lot of people was "Color of Darkness" by James Purdy.
I also like and am excited by everything I publish on Muumuu House, a press I started in late 2008. I recommended the two books published on Muumuu House, by Ellen Kennedy and Brandon Scott Gorrell, to almost every one I know and many people I don't know.

FFN: Do you think you’re better at writing or pulling internet stunts? Or equally adept at both?

Lin: I don't know which I'm better at. Probably writing. I have practiced and studied writing. I haven't practiced or studied internet stunts throughout the history of the internet. I like doing both.

FFN: What was the hardest part about going
from writing a short story collection to a novel?

Lin: I'm not sure. It seemed easier maybe. While writing the novel I felt I could have the rereadability of the book be that each sentence was enjoyable and/or exciting to read, and that the overall coherence only needed to be vague, in a way that I wouldn't need to have it seem
thematic on the sentence level, since I felt it was conveying an entire life, sort of, which has less of a "theme" than part of a life (which is what my short stories were like sort of, part of a life, causing me to want it to be thematic on the sentence level, meaning I wanted each adjective or simile to be part of the same "idea," or "feeling," sort of).

FFN: My favorite thing you’ve ever written was the story "Love is a Thing on Sale for More Money Than There Exists" How long did it take
you to write and is it your favorite thing also?

Lin: Maybe ~120 hours over 40 days. I don't think it is my favorite thing I've written. I'm not sure what my favorite thing I've written is. It changes each day, I think. I like SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL most many days recently. I have liked the last story in BED and the 5th (I think) story in BED most many days in the past.

FFN: Sometimes people hate you and then they think you are wonderful. Do you hate any people?

Lin: I don't hate anyone, I think. Ideally I don't hate anyone. If I am working towards, or practicing at, anything in this regard it is to
not hate anyone. I probably hate certain people for brief moments, but it isn't something I try to extend or "build on" at all, but rather something I try to just not do.

FFN: You recently auctioned off some G-chats on drugs. Have you had those G-chats and were they life-affirming experiences?

Lin: I have had the gchats. I feel they were life-affirming, because I was getting something I wanted and the other person was also getting something they wanted, among other reasons.

About the Author

Sarah Rose Etter earned her BA in English & Publishing from Penn State University. She's currently finishing up her MFA at Rosemont College. Her work has appeared in The Baltimore Review, The Menda City Review, and The Delinquent. Her work has also been performed in London, by the Liars' League.