Contextualizing Context: Tao Lin's Eeeee Eee Eeee

With his first novel, Eeeee Eee Eeee, Tao Lin crafts a disorienting and provocative work of contemporary fiction surrounding the past, present, and lack of a future within the text's protagonist Andrew, as well as an array of anthropomorphic animals, Andrew's friends and acquaintances, and even an overly-preachy U.S. President. The reality (or near absence of reality) the author weaves is steeped in contradiction and near-defiance towards modern society's typical notions of what such a reality should be, creating a great deal of ambiguity and instilling skepticism amongst the reader in a way that can be both frustrating and intoxicating, simultaneously. While such innovation and ingenuity forefronts Eeeee's literary and social value, Lin's concurrent influence and near-dependence on pop-culture to near-basic human contextualism cannot be ignored, as well as the texts total lack of racial specification amongst its characters. These two guiding principles to both Lin's writing overall, as well as Eeeee in particular, will be further explored through the course of this paper.

Before dissecting Eeeee and its contextual foundation, it is important to address the ideologies behind the collective epistemological theory of contextualism, as well as its origin and application in contemporary human life. Context, the very foundation of contextualism, is a concept that is most often divided between those of social contexts and verbal contexts, and I must assume these two distinctions, essentially, speak for themselves. In fact, the only reason they can speak for themselves at all is due to the contextualized significance embedded within both the word "social" and "verbal": a befitting example of how context holds virtually all meaning, challenging the existence of meaning altogether (Glanzberg 9). While its contemporary origins began loosely in the early 1950s with Norman Malcolm's Knowledge and Belief, and continued from then on, contextualism's most comprehensive and modern articulation can be found in Keith DeRose's Contextualism: An Explanation and Defense, published in 1999 at Yale University. Stating that, "'contextualism' refers to the position that the truth-conditions knowledge-ascribing and knowledge-denying sentences vary in certain ways according to the context in which they are uttered," DeRose plainly asserts a theoretical stance on "truth", that can be applied to art, and therefore literature, as what I would equate to be a stance on some form of a fundamental artistic understanding (DeRose 1). While not said explicitly, DeRose suggests that such a fundamental understanding cannot exist, as the understanding can be molded and reoriented towards the context of every individual. The arbitrary nature of the concept of universal or absolute truth, is just as arbitrary as subscribing to the belief that "meaning" or "significance" transcends time and culture; these are simply unfound and illogical, as there exists no definitive evidence towards the existence of universal meaning or truth (and therefore one must assume that the inherent quintessence of the universe and reality is only chaos and disorder). While it is argued upon whether contextualism is steeped more heavily in that of epistemological theory, or the human faculty of language-as well as whether or not those two coincide to begin with-for the sake of clarity, my analysis will do its best to approach the subject from both sides (DeRose 3). I also feel that I must make the distinction between contextualism and relativism, as the former has been often discredited as a near-repetition of the latter. I personally disagree, and while I may have previously presented this, contextualism does not so determinately proclaim there to be no absolute truth or meaning (as relativism does) but adduces the understanding that knowledge can be subjective. The lines between these two may be slim, but are still existent; it is not so much what contextualism says that differentiates it from relativism but what it does not say. The complexity, chaos and mystery of this controversial philosophical belief translates extremely well to the intricate and wonderful surrealism of Eeeee and is, what I believe to be, the guiding light to Tao Lin's narrative. Having said that, it must be understood that Eeeee boasts a great deal of originality and vicissitude; the author does not simply follow any form of (and to my knowledge, it is nonexistent) a contextualism aesthetic guideline.

Tao Lin's approach to writing is both unique in its instigative and outrageous manner, as well as its polarizing appeal amongst his readers. His mere existence as a writer manages to exemplify the concept of the subjective of which is laced throughout contextual theory. This, as one should assume, is the very tip of the tip of the iceberg that is Tao Lin's contextual universe, within and without him. While clearly a well-tested variable within this notion, Lin mutually influences and contributes to certain contexts within our modern society. Contributing weekly to internet media outlets such as Vice, maintaining a Tumblr, Twitter, and blog page, as well as a Facebook page with 5,004 friends (as of August 7th, 2011) the writer is an outspoken facet to the globalized social context of internet culture. This internet presence has a profound effect on the author's work in many ways, but two of which seem most important.

First, he is able to maintain a wider audience. This alone creates a domino-effect in an array of forms. This wider audience theoretically perpetuates itself depending of the personal contexts of his already reached followers (i.e. will they tell their friends about it, will they continue to read his work?). He is theoretically able to make more money and depending on the economical demands of his contextual reality able to focus more on writing, and therefore able to produce more work, which can theoretically make him more money, etc. Also, and what could be considered most important (in terms of the "grand scheme" of things) this wider audience begets the possibility for Lin's work to inspire future or current novelists, poets, screenwriters, etc. These butterfly effect-esque qualities within the realm of contextualism illustrate the eternal fluctuation and unpredictability of a world, a knowing, based on context.

Secondly, Tao's utilization of the internet and its culture poses a much more streamlined method of publication than print for the author. Instead of waiting to collect a anthology of works, he can publish ~200 word flashes of fiction on a website for most of the world to see. Again, a domino-effect is created. As with the brevity and ease Lin may go about producing these "lesser" works, he is able to project