I guess Chinese men don't have tears

September 29, 2016 12:01 PM

Lovey Banh is a figure I became completely transfixed by during a period of really unstable emotional health. She has mild notoriety as an amazon oddity author for her irreverent book titles (“An Ant See A Lion Marry A Butterfly: I Am Sleeping In My Car B/C I Am Not The Next RJ Rowling”, “30 Years I Do Not Brush My Teeth”, “One Kid Two Lungs To Harvest”), book covers prominently featuring what is presumably the author in swimwear, book pricing (most sitting at around $2,000), and the incomparable sum of books written and available to purchase: currently equaling 265...

...It’s all very easy to quickly dismiss as funny and weird and move on from. But upon closer inspection and some pouring through of “look inside” offerings of her books, there was something namelessly too human and that connected too much within itself to convince me there wasn’t intelligence behind the books.

The Case of Lovey Banh.
posted by timshel (7 comments total)

One Kid Two Lungs To Harvest

same as it ever was
posted by thelonius at 12:08 PM on September 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

If this is what it appears, then Lovey Banh is in fact what Chuck Tingle is pretending to be. (I heart Chuck Tingle, but that aspect of the pretense bothers me sometimes.) I hope the best for her, but I am afraid she will never get it.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:20 PM on September 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is so fascinating and sad! Its posts like this (amongst many others) that make me think joining metafilter might be the best five bucks I've ever spent. Sorry I don't have much to add, this story just kinda blew me away. Thank you so much for posting it.
posted by I_Zimbra at 12:21 PM on September 29, 2016 [8 favorites]

Jesus, that's heart breaking. I hope she finds some peace.
posted by lumpenprole at 1:54 PM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

A July update from one of the article writer's other Tumblrs:

After doing a lot, a lot of hours of research and coming into contact with people close to Vivian who did not wish to speak about her I could never confirm her direct whereabouts, she has been in and out of hospitals and legal institutions in California for many years. It is likely she is homeless and has an estranged relationship with her family. I really hope that is not the case and she’s just laying low or that she resurfaces someday so people can help her. Other than that I’d ask anyone still on her to stop, I wrote a bit on my personal blog about how my handling of her narrative was irresponsible since she has no way of being a complicit party to her own story. I do keep her in my prayers.

posted by nicebookrack at 4:05 PM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

This story makes me sad, she obviously was not getting the help she needed. Amongst the growing numbers of homeless and mentally ill I pass by every day there must be many more stories like this.

Genuine question, what disorder or family of disorders makes people start writing in the style of her books?
posted by Joe Chip at 5:46 PM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is seriously heartbreaking. Ugh.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:19 PM on September 29, 2016