Meme-Hunting Expedition: Toronto

Toronto’s memes, I now know, were centered most richly in the [Asian-country]-town area, which I unfortunately moved away from upon leaving my Megabus, rapidly discerning less memes (and of lower rebloggability, I felt) until I arrived, ~50 minutes later, at Whole Foods, whose combination of social awareness and professionally modern aesthetic has proven highly unfriendly to the nourishment of young memes—those who don’t “die” early are “snuffed out” daily by managers. Because I was deceived (by the initially abundant flora of memes) to believe, on some level—with increasing desperation and then actually a kind of fatalism bordering on nihilism—that there would be “more memes ahead” many powerful, potentially viral memes were left in the wild. These 5 memes are presented, then, as an inaccurate—a weaker, ersatz—sampling of Toronto’s visual memes.
Apr. 14, 2011

By Tao Lin info

Tao Lin is a writer living in Manhattan, NY.

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BACKSTORY MEME

Implies a preexisting narrative that is often Kafka-esque in nature.

The underlined “AND,” the distorted “MADE IN PRISON,” the exclamation mark, the italicization of everything but the title, that allowing prisoners to make bags/bandanas is “giving [them] a second chance in life,” that “ASSORTED” is arguably there more for neurotic reasons having to do with consistency in structural aesthetic than to provide information—each of these details were attempts, I felt, looking at this meme inside an Italian restaurant, at distracting the viewer from each of the other details. The overall effect is one of irresolution. I perceived this meme to exist in some hazy distance—beyond the concept of distraction, beyond each specific distraction—suspecting, but never certain, that it was a medium-strong meme. TC mark

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  • oat

    oh my god is there anything you write these people won't publish

  • toronto

    just … get out of my city.

  • Tommmmmm

    hello tao r u still in toronto? can we maybe shoot the breeze?

  • oat

    also i know exactly what this comment section is going to look like in 24 hours

  • http://stephentullydierks.blogspot.com stephen

    lol

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    why…

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    what will it look like

  • http://tomhankssuperfan.blogspot.com megan boyle

    lol…

    i want there to be a short film called “the meme hunter” based on this article, starring liam neeson

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    i have some news for you

    'the meme hunter' will be out in spring of 2014!

    sadly, it's not starring liam neeson, but i heard they want him for the sequel

  • oat

    what it's already starting to look like

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    i'm not there

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    what does it already look like

  • Amy

    Why did you chose Toronto? I liked this article.

  • http://thetimewornwhat.blogspot.com/ shaun gannon

    this

  • oat

    like you'll be shocked by a device inside your macbook if you don't reply to as many comments as you can

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    what does that look like

  • Maggie

    felt a sense of unity with this article and my country, might sing national anthem under my breath

  • oat

    this conversation

  • http://hbgwhem.tumblr.com/ HBGWHEM

    i don't mean to be racial in a post-racial society and i fear i'm being rude here, but i've already started typing and i think i've already backtracked enough that this statement will seem meek instead of whiteguyish but, as a member of the AZN community, while you were photographing these memes, did you feel yourself becoming a live action meme to passers by?

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    sweet

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    interesting

    i didn't feel that at the time

    feel like next time i might feel that now

  • http://hbgwhem.tumblr.com/ HBGWHEM

    don't let it get in the way of your meme hunting though. if you have someone take a picture of you taking a picture of a meme then it could muddy the research. it's like this one time i saw a baseball card and the picture on the card was of the player holding his baseball card which couldn't have existed until the photograph was taken and it made me so confused that i haven't been able to watch baseball without getting a migraine =( keep hunting, tao.

  • http://profiles.google.com/sheelacheong Sheela Cheong

    When I saw this meme I felt momentarily disoriented, confused if I was actually looking at someone’s Tumblr (in retrospect I’ve discerned this disorientation to be mostly manifestation, in concrete reality, of wanting to “click to enlarge”).
    ———-

    Liking this a lot.
    'The simulated environment can be similar to the real world.'

  • Tommmmmm

    all of our memes; inside joke you outside.

  • OFWGKTA

    you're the best writer on this site. but that's not saying much

  • http://stephentullydierks.blogspot.com stephen

    Oat, i may have something for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

  • http://stephentullydierks.blogspot.com stephen

    have you tried any of these products http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

  • http://avantgardebagpipesolos.tumblr.com/ Omar De Col

    “I don't know who memes are.

    I don't know what memes want.

    If memes are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money.

    But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career.

    Skills that make me a nightmare for memes like you.

    If memes let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it.

    I will not look for memes, I will not pursue memes.

    But if memes don't, I will look for memes, I will find memes, and I will kill memes.”

    - THE MEME HUNTER

  • Lol

    LOL! Tao Lin is an AZN man in a very very white world. His entire consciousness is seen through this filament

  • http://twitter.com/gay_lioness_fag david jones

    laughed after reading “sturdy” within “SPORTS + CANCER MEME”

  • Lol

    canada is a bad joke

  • cooldadbro

    It's interesting how you begin by describing memes in terms of flora, whereas Carles of Hipster Runoff opts for fauna [via the metaphor of the 'content farm']. Are memes animal, vegetable, or mineral? Perhaps they are of their own 'mememal' class, somewhere between the animate and the inanimate.

  • Anon

    I'm so jealous of Megan Boyle getting to be with this man.

    Someday I hope to be married to a non caucasian published author writer for thought catalog hipsterrunoff meme

  • Anon

    I reread this and it came off as snarky but I am in ALL SERIOUSNESS

  • http://avantgardebagpipesolos.tumblr.com/ Omar De Col

    “The overall effect is one of irresolution.”

    damn, sounds like 'life'

  • http://boysincords.tumblr.com/ hannah b

    'bandana's – assorted' seems hopeless or something

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    in my view your statement 'isn't saying much' because your use of the word 'best' denotes that you alone know what the goal of life is and that you have done a study of every writer on this site and concluded that i'm the writer who most effectively, with my writing, benefits the success of that goal and that that goal, additionally, is a goal that every person who reads your comment shares exactly (which, i feel, is impossible to know)

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    i had pictures on my iphone from toronto

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    interesting

  • AaronWB

    Meme-hunting reminds me of Ezra Koenig's vibe-spotting project before he got famous.

    http://internetvibes.blogspot….

  • OFWGKTA

    fine, i take it back. i take it all back

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    sweet

  • http://notatoaster.tumblr.com mary

    'meme hunter' would be one hollywood production i would actually pay actual us currency to actually see

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1363230138 Michael Koh

    oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god

  • Brandon

    just 'liked' upwards of 4 comments in this comments section, feeling uniquely positive

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao
  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    sweet

  • GIRLFRAN

    like pop art in words.

  • Luke

    lol'd at sick kids meme

  • http://twitter.com/thiscameron Cameron

    “in retrospect I’ve discerned this disorientation to be mostly the manifestation, in concrete reality, of a physical urge to “click to enlarge””

    sometimes i don't want to respond to what someone said to me. i just want to 'reblog' it irl.

  • Brotein Powder

    You don't have to know the “goal of life” and study “every writer on this site” to know that something is piss poor. Not saying that your writing is, in fact, piss poor, but just that your critique appeals to the kind of objectivity that you so often decry.

  • http://fuckheadwitha.blogspot.com jwg

    This article made me feel like Road Hockey and Boston Pizza are going to stomp cancer's shit.

  • shoehorn

    may have eaten at the restaurant displaying the first sign last night, a minute or so from the bus terminal
    the soy sauce was watered down..

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    sweet

    lol

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    i think road hockey could via exercise

    pizza seems like it would be a cause of cancer

    overall seems like they might 'even out,' but since most people already eat pizza maybe not, maybe it will decrease cancer rates

  • http://twitter.com/adamhump adamhump

    fuck you

  • http://www.smokingonanemptystomach.blogspot.com Jordan

    felt high levels of interest and enjoyed reading this while 'playing with my facial hair' and showing ziggy the pictures after i read each page

  • curt

    seems faulkner-esque

    lol at “sick kids”

    really loved the sentences in that last one, tao

  • bad joke

    this article is a bad joke

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    sweet ass ziggy muffins

  • http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/ tao

    sweet ass ziggy muffins

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