WEBVTT

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Thank you Tyler, and
thank you Cybele.

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Thank all of you for
coming out tonight.

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You're probably
here tonight to hear

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Tan Lin read in his voice--

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[LAUGHTER]

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--his writing.

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This is an inherently
paradoxical situation,

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as Tan disavows concepts of
originality, authenticity,

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and voice.

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Tan's work is always
challenging the notion

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of what it means to read.

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What do we do when we encounter
poems, or tabloid magazines,

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or 30 page legal contracts,
product reviews on websites,

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academic criticism, cookbooks,
plagiarized student papers,

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19th century verse novels,
artworks like Duchamp's

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or Warhol, architectural
blueprints, computer passwords,

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bad translations, criminal
labeling, amateur photographer,

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high end coffee table books?

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[LAUGHTER]

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[CLEARS THROAT]

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We do more than just read.

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We cruise, surf, skim, scan,
cut, crack, bone, blip, buy,

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imbibe.

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Tan Lin knows that
our reading is

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often dependent on capitalistic
systems of packaging,

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distribution, and formatting.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Tan knows that how we read
is changing, no longer

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a solitary romantic
enterprise, if it ever was.

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But more look into web surfing
with multiple browser tabs

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open, or listening
to a DJ at a club.

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We mix songs that are
themselves already remixed.

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Or shopping for vintage items in
a retrofitted mall, originally

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built in the 1980s.

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Everything has become
a citation of itself.

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Everything has become
a citation of itself.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Tan doesn't want
to read his work,

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or have you read
it in the ways you

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might think poetry
should be read.

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Don't be surprised
if Tan invites

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you to read his
writing with one eye

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shut, or the music
turned up so loud

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you can barely
concentrate on the words.

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Or in such a way that
the experience of reading

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is not the all-absorbing
primary activity

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we think proper
reading should be.

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But it becomes a secondary
and background activity

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to some other--

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[LAUGHTER]

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--primary activity.

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Integral to Tan's deep curiosity
about reading and our notions

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of reading are his challenges to
traditional notions of valuable

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text , as opposed to
disposable or mundane ones.

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Tan Lin doesn't believe in
literature with a capital L.

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[LAUGHTER]

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And his writerly response
to this concept is to quote,

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and I quote, Oh, I quote.

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[LAUGHTER]

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"Diffuse poetry, or
what is generally

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referred to as
serious literature,

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into other less overly
literary arenas,

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like cookbooks, office
productivity software,

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such as PowerPoint, or films.

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Most people don't
write poems or novels,

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but they do compose reports,
memos, restaurant reviews

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on Yelp, and grocery lists.

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Literature usually tries
to assert its difference

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from such kinds of writing,
but I wanted literature--"

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This is Tan Lin, remember--

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"--to approach them.

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And by them, I mean their
specific genre conventions.

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Can literature resemble a
cookbook, or a PowerPoint

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lecture?

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I think so."

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End quote.

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Here's a tip to reading Tan.

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When you read him, relax.

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Don't worry too much about
being befuddled or bemused.

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Approach the work less
as traditional poems

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and think about the ways you
read other everyday objects

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and artifacts.

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Know that poetry is
more than just poems.

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Tan is the author of over 10
books, but who's counting?

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His video theatrical
and LCD work

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has been shown at Otis
Space, the Marianne Boesky

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Gallery, the Yale Art
Museum, Sophienholm

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Museum in Copenhagen,
Ontological Hysterical Theater,

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and as part of the Whitney
Museum of American Art

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Sound Check Series.

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He is a recipient of a
Foundation for Contemporary

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Arts Grant for poetry, a Getty
distinguished scholar grant,

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and a Warhol Foundation Creative
Capital Arts writing grant

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to complete a book-length study
of the writing of Andy Warhol.

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He teaches creative writing
at New Jersey City University.

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Please help me welcome Tan Lin.

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[APPLAUSE]