Reading Response 10/20

Shoplifting from American Apparel by Tao Lin was written in 1^st person narrative and the authors’ style of writing is subjective yet banal at times. This piece relates directly to The Philosophy of Andy Warhol by Andy Warhol and Excessivism by K. Silem Mohammed because they address Postmodernism and the attempt to recognize reality and what this perception of reality represents to what life means to us. In Excessivism, Mohammed wrote “ the result is that they are content” (pg 932), this is exactly how Sam lives his life, but Sams reality is that he is living a productive life. This is seen during his conversation with Luis on page 6, when Luis talks to Sam about his thoughts on people who get up and get things done suck, but Sam who has just woke up at 3:30 pm believes that “We get shit done too,” “Look at our books.”.

In various parts of the novel not only does Sam spend his time aimlessly with no sense of direction or purpose but his relationships with others also have a lack of substance. For Sam the relationship between what his life represents and its reality are in conflict. Sam builds superficial relationships through MySpace ,Gmail chat, and text which are suppose to be tools of advancement and betterment to society but this isn’t the effect its having on his life. MySpace and Gmail chat represents a forging of relationships but the reality for Sam is that these Internet friendships are misleading, an example of this is when he introduced himself to Audrey, who than turned around and walked away,  he than turned to Joseph and said “I thought those people would hang out with us” “We talked on the Internet before and said we would hang out or something”.   

 The Internet has become a barrier or an escape for Sam and has allowed him to not interact with others and completely checkout of productive society. The fact that Sam feels more comfortable telling Luis (who I believe he’s never met in person) about his 1^st arrest but doesn’t feel obligated to tell his parents shows that the Internet has allowed him to create his own reality with little to no connection to the outside world. Everybody else seems to know a world exist except Sam, Jeffery returns to Sarasota, Audrey wants to move to NYC for a better life and it isn't until the end when everybody is leaving that Sam becomes skeptic of his own life and realizes that before the Internet and social media that he too had dreams of becoming a Marine Biologist.