How he found my blog is beyond me, but Tao Lin himself commented on it, asking "what about megan boyle, tao lin and jimmy chen" (word for word, I swear. Sans punctuation and everything). I preferred not to respond to this comment, figuring it was a one-time thing, and nothing would come of it. However, a little over 12 hours later, an anon commented with a little snippier tone: "megan boyle, tao lin, and jimmy chen are among the most substantive authors TC publishes...your lack of notice/regard for their presence is telling" Well, so is your tone, I commented.
I didn't think anything of this little fiasco, other than an internet tiff that was remotely exciting. Then, tonight I was doing a little tweet-stalking (is that a thing?) and found Brandon Scott Gorrell's Twitter. How interesting, I thought (ironically), he's just as boring on Twitter. He did link to an article about Tao Lin & Friends (including himself) which I took the time to read -- and it finally all made sense. Tao Lin was butt hurt about not being mentioned!
I quickly realized while reading this article that Tao Lin has published 3 books, mostly out of his own pocket. Suddenly, I understood why he was so mad that I didn't review him -- he's an actual, published writer, and I didn't even mention him! Suddenly, the term "substantive" makes sense in that comment! Oh anon, you are correct! They are some of the most substantive writers! TC should be happy to publish them!
However, the article explains the kind of writing Lin has published (that being, a kind of glorified, gchat poetry). They provided a sample, and I must say, I was not a fan. But it occurred to me that if TC had published this, I would have remembered. In fact, when those comments were posted, I was driven to look at the articles that Tao Lin had written -- why didn't I review him? But I didn't remember any bad poetry. So why didn't I review him? The first answer was obvious, he only had 25 published articles (Top Contributors Ed, anyone?), but more importantly, they were boxed TC articles. No human element here, just some tips for being considerate on the internet and other random articles with no pattern to follow. Most importantly: I didn't feel like I knew him after reading them. I reviewed people with personality, because, let's face it, it wasn't an actual review of people's writing. It was just another excuse to flaunt my love for Thought Catalog and their writers.
But back to my anon comment (maybe I'll turn those off?) "megan boyle, tao lin, and jimmy chen are among the most substantive authors TC publishes...your lack of notice/regard for their presence is telling" Well, anon, I agree. My lack of notice and regard for their presence is telling. It tells that I am obvii not internet literate, otherwise I would have known who the fuck Tao Lin is and how important TC is to have his published writing on it. That being said, I'm completely okay with being a couple years behind in the internet world -- no need to cause a stir in something that I can just log out of at the end of the day.
The moral of the story is: just because a bored 19-year-old girl writes a blog post that leaves you out doesn't mean she's doing it on purpose, it just means she's internet illiterate.
P.S. Tao Lin, if you read this, I think your Thought Catalog articles are fine.
