Alan (the Lone Librarian on film festival hiatus) Teder’s Reviews > You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked. > Status Update
Alan (the Lone Librarian on film festival hiatus) Teder
is on page 103 of 190
"Do you have any tong sui?" I asked him in Cantonese.
"Canadian people don't eat that stuff. Order some mango pudding."
"Sure," I answer.
"I want some good tong sui too," the man continues. "There's a small dessert place in Chinatown that has it, but it's nothing like what I eat at home. The job of a Chinese restaurant in Toronto is to serve customers the idea of Chinese food rather than actual Chinese food."
— Aug 02, 2025 03:51PM
"Canadian people don't eat that stuff. Order some mango pudding."
"Sure," I answer.
"I want some good tong sui too," the man continues. "There's a small dessert place in Chinatown that has it, but it's nothing like what I eat at home. The job of a Chinese restaurant in Toronto is to serve customers the idea of Chinese food rather than actual Chinese food."
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Alan (the Lone Librarian on film festival hiatus)’s Previous Updates
Alan (the Lone Librarian on film festival hiatus) Teder
is on page 170 of 190
"Have you read The Vegetarian?" you ask.
"Excuse me?"
"The novel The Vegetarian. Have you read it?"
"No, is it any good?"
You give him a summary and he seems genuinely interested.
"Huh, so that's the kind of stuff that sells these days," is Harold Li's response.
"What do you by 'kind of stuff'?" you ask.
"Weird, surreal, feminist stories that make a mockery of the ignorance of men. Trendy stuff."
— Aug 02, 2025 04:29PM
"Excuse me?"
"The novel The Vegetarian. Have you read it?"
"No, is it any good?"
You give him a summary and he seems genuinely interested.
"Huh, so that's the kind of stuff that sells these days," is Harold Li's response.
"What do you by 'kind of stuff'?" you ask.
"Weird, surreal, feminist stories that make a mockery of the ignorance of men. Trendy stuff."
Alan (the Lone Librarian on film festival hiatus) Teder
is on page 167 of 190
He laughs, "Seriously, what is your book about. I'm curious."
You recite to him a paragraph from the proposal you sent to your agent, adding words like autofiction, experimentalism, and magic realism, for no reason other than to make your book sound more like a book (and maybe to confuse him).
— Aug 02, 2025 04:24PM
You recite to him a paragraph from the proposal you sent to your agent, adding words like autofiction, experimentalism, and magic realism, for no reason other than to make your book sound more like a book (and maybe to confuse him).
Alan (the Lone Librarian on film festival hiatus) Teder
is on page 153 of 190
"Cool, dude. What do you translate?"
"A bit of everything: pamphlets providing information on heart disease, words that go on shampoo bottles. You know, things people read but don't really remember reading."
There is a pause. Harold Li is deciding if you are joking or not. You are not.
Harold Li chuckles and sips his coffee. "You're a funny guy."
— Aug 02, 2025 04:16PM
"A bit of everything: pamphlets providing information on heart disease, words that go on shampoo bottles. You know, things people read but don't really remember reading."
There is a pause. Harold Li is deciding if you are joking or not. You are not.
Harold Li chuckles and sips his coffee. "You're a funny guy."
Alan (the Lone Librarian on film festival hiatus) Teder
is on page 144 of 190
For Mo Yen (sic*), writing directly engaged literature is impossible because of state oppression. Writers in the past have always utilized different methods to address issues when being direct is impossible. Traditionally, many East Asian folktales are political allegories or parables.
* This is presumably meant to be Chinese author Mo Yan.
— Aug 02, 2025 04:09PM
* This is presumably meant to be Chinese author Mo Yan.
Alan (the Lone Librarian on film festival hiatus) Teder
is on page 132 of 190
"Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting, and - it at all possible speak a few sensible words" (Goethe Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship).
— Aug 02, 2025 03:56PM
