1. He seems to be a controversial writer, but I do believe that Tao Lin will be viewed as an Important Writer someday and he’s dead on when he says that his possessions are worth $300-500 but thousands in 10 years.  But hearing him say that is interesting to me.  From what I’ve read of him in articles and watched of him in videos, he doesn’t seem like a person that thinks so highly of himself in such a way, if anything, the opposite.  His demeanor comes off as shy, self-loathing and timid.  But he did make that statement at the end of this video.

2. Again, Lin isn’t for everyone, but he is writing in a different way that is definitively not “mainstream” fiction.  This video reeks of desperation and that’s really sad to me that an artist trying something different has to go to these lengths to auction off personal belongings and not just some magazines and CDs.  Although Lin has pulled stunts like this in the past, there’s no wink and nudge here and it just seems more like “I need to pay rent.”

3. Just sad again, with six days the highest bid in the auction is $78.64.