you are a little bit happier than i am
by Tao Lin
List Price:
Our Price: $11.90
You Save: $2.10 (15%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.42 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Tao LinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-11-01
ISBN: 097656923X
Number of pages: 96
Publisher: Action Books
Book Reviews of you are a little bit happier than i am
Book Review: Tylenolcold
Summary: 5 Stars
I think "you are a little bit happier than i am" is usually the first book people read by Tao Lin, as it is his first. I read it last. I think when people always refer to "Tao Lin" style poetry they're referring to this book. Seems like the iconic first doctrine of self-conscious, disappointed with people/the universe/the self (to some degree) poetry.
Death is an abstraction to anyone who is alive, but it's also inevitable that everyone will die. The person writing this book seems to have known this for a long time, and it has maybe influenced their worldview in that it seems like there is something fundamentally unavailable about being alive, it will never be fulfilled in itself or reach some 'level' where 'it all makes sense.' It has to end by dying. We can never know what everything we've done in our lives has amounted to, because we're dead. A lot of the poems in this book are about how relationships (both platonic and romantic) are also unfulfilling. Relationships seem out of control because their outcomes aren't just determined by your thoughts alone. Another person perceives and decides things too, and they might decide something that makes you feel bad and it's impossible to predict that happening, fully. The person writing this book seems to find comfort in their imagination because it is something certain that he can know, I think. It seems comforting to add sarcasm to the image of yourself getting rejected by the National Book Award, because it draws attention to the insignificance surrounding the feelings of rejection/the self/the National Book Award/writing/everything. There is another poem where Lin receives the Nobel Prize for telling his mom she only thinks [something] because she watches Fox News, but then the Nobel Prize committee asks him to continue and he earnestly describes his feelings of confusion about the nature of consciousness/perception and what it means to have finite thoughts in an infinite universe. That poem, "poem to end my head off" starts with this:
i haven't told you what i found out yet
that in life
when tabby dies
she dies by the laundry machine
Death happens in laundry machines to pet dogs. His mom accidentally text messages him that life is too sad without "tabby" (accidentally sent, perhaps, because of thinking "I don't want to bother anyone with my sadness" or "my sadness isn't validated even though I am still saying it is the saddest thing in the world"). Seems really vulnerable, and also true. Later in this poem, Lin says he wants "laundry machines to drink coffee at night and secretly collect things that no one else will." He wants the world to be different and better, I think. In your imagination the world can be different and better. He wants a world that makes sense even on the tiniest level of wanting "Tylenol cold" to be one word. I felt very affected by this poem.
Reading "yaalbhtia" feels like having a conversation with the voice inside of Tao Lin's head, which seems to be the only reliable thing in an unstable world, and so it feels like a 'glimpse' of what it would be like to know someone in a way that really is never fully possible (but often sought-after, and impossible to not seek if you are a person who feels lonely and somewhat 'cheated' by the nature of existence), I think.
Summary of you are a little bit happier than i am
Reading Tao Lin's poetry is like looking the wrong way down Frank O'Hara's ear trumpet at a 21st century Mayakovsky IM-ing Lili Brik. It's fun, smart, manic and ecstatic; it puts on a clean shirt before it loads the gun.Depression Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Depression Books
Recurrent Mood Disordersby G. F. Placidi
Springer-Verlag Telos; Published: 1995-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Breaking the Patterns of Depressionby Michael D. Yapko
Three Rivers Press; Published: 1998-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
On Mood Swings: The Psychobiology of Elation and Depressionby Suzanne P. Schad-Somers
Insight Books; Published: 1990-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.88
Price in other shops:
Understanding depression: A translational approachby Randolph M. Nesse, David Nutt, Lewis Wolpert
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-09-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $52.15
Price in other shops:
Understanding Depression: A Complete Guide to Its Diagnosis and Treatmentby Donald F. Klein M.D., Paul H. Wender M.D.
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2005-04-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Guidelines for the Systematic Treatment of the Depressed Patient (Guidebooks in Clinical Psychology)by Larry E. Beutler, John Clarkin, Bruce Bongar
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2000-02-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.52
Price in other shops:
Depression after Childbirth: How to Recognise, Treat, and Prevent Postnatal Depressionby Katherina Dalton
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2001-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $55.86
Price in other shops:
Prozac Diaryby Lauren Slater
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Sunbathing in the Rain: A Cheerful Book About Depressionby Gwyneth Lewis
Flamingo; Published: 2003-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.13
Price in other shops:
The Zen Path Through Depressionby Philip Martin
HarperOne; Published: 2000-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Selected Unpublished Blog Posts of a Mexican Panda Express Employeeby Megan Boyle
Muumuu House; Published: 2011-11-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.89
Price in other shops:
Personby Sam Pink
Eraserhead Press; Published: 2010-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops:
Richard Yatesby Tao Lin
Melville House; Published: 2010-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.36
Price in other shops:
Shoplifting from American Apparel (The Contemporary Art of the Novella)by Tao Lin
Melville House; Published: 2009-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Bedby Tao Lin
Melville House; Published: 2007-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.05
Price in other shops:
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapyby Tao Lin
Melville House; Published: 2008-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.97
Price in other shops:
Learning to Love You Moreby Harrell Fletcher, Miranda July
Prestel USA; Published: 2007-09-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.11
Price in other shops:
It Chooses Youby Miranda July
McSweeney's, Irregulars; Published: 2011-11-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.02
Price in other shops:
No One Belongs Here More Than You: Storiesby Miranda July
Scribner; Published: 2008-05-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.92
Price in other shops:
Eeeee Eee Eeeeby Tao Lin
Melville House; Published: 2007-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.45
Price in other shops: