richard yates. tao lin. (55)

as mentioned in my previous post "richard yates" was my second attempt to get tao lin. [i hate to admit this but for the longest time i thought this was an allusion to yeats, though i physically saw yates, my mind processed it as yeats]. another disclaimer i have never read any of richard yates' work. "revolutionary road" has been sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years now. i bought it after watching the film. tried to read it once but couldn't get into it. (ps found "revolutionary road" for $1 at the samo friends' of the library bookstore. so support that too.)

"richard yates" is about the relationship between a teenage girl, dakota fanning (but not the dakota fanning) and her twenty-two year old boyfriend haley joel osment (but not the haley joel osment). i am not fond of either of their acting but found their name usage clever. while reading my mind once again did as it pleased versus believing my eyes. instead of haley joel osment, who i could only visualize as an 8 year old that sees dead people, i visualized elijah wood but as his character in "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" kinda needy and creepy but sappily in love. which i feel made for a better read. i did see dakota fanning as dakota fanning but as a grown up version of herself from that doll photo she did as a kid:

so the novel is pretty much the story of their relationship. they met on the internet which kinda creeped me out but only cos dakota fanning is still in high school. i have always been grossed out by guys in their early twenties that date high school girls, even when i was a high school girl. their story is told through texts, gmail chat, and in person convos (it's a long distance relationship, she is in jersey and he in nyc). they also had to hide their relationship from her mother because of his age but her mom is eventually cool with it, which is odd.  (or maybe i just had strict parent/relatives).  they are both self-loathing and depressed. joel osment becomes abusive and controlling which leads to her lying and with an eating disorder.  i always find it so odd how men who date younger girls become controlling but then again they are dating young girls, not exactly the greatest self esteem to begin with. they also deal with being poor, dakota fanning eventually steals clothes from american apparel and sells them on ebay, clever, especially since american apparel is so overpriced yet kids somehow afford it. there was also a pregnancy scare in there somewhere and i was glad that child didn't happen. it all reads like some bad mtv soap opera, the east coast version of the hills. and though i have never read his works, i am assuming are an updated version of yates' works? his works were about relationships that become unhealthy? (see: revolutionary road, the movie version).

so in my google searching, i noticed that tao lin is always cited as being the voice of my generation. and at first i thought to myself "seriously? are we that whiny of a generation?" and after some more thought i realized yes. we are. throughout the novel, haley joel and dakota are constantly saying "i want to kill myself". which i found annoying. but after a glance at my twitter realized "hey, i am guilty of that shit too." i am constantly saying "omg, i am going to slit my wrist" and "fml" (which is like a motto of my generation.) so i guess tao lin is the voice of my generation. and maybe i couldn't see because his work is so accurate that i am in denial of my generation being that sad.

quotations:

"i think obese people are assholes, they take up more room." 

(if you think this quote is mean that you have never sat next to a fat person on a bus, a plane, a movie theater or at the hollywood bowl.  like seriously it is extremely unextremely unfair that your roll of fat crossed over to my seat.  get your fat in line!)