"A preference for doing something that’s less good, yet more true to me, versus doing something that’s better but further away from my true abilities." radicalcut.blogspot.com/2026/07/my-t...

"Contrary to former times, this is an age in which money begets money. Today it is the man of common ability with capital, rather than the man of rare ability with no capital, who gains profit." – Ihara Saikaku, This Scheming World (1693)

“Such people use obscure words to disguise the triteness of what they have to say and retort that there has been a misunderstanding as soon as you think you have understood what they are saying – that is, precisely, something trite.” – Jacques Rancière, The Politics of Literature

Check out Committed to Irony: A Recommended Reading List by Koh-i-Noor author Michael Eddy on @49thshelf.bsky.social, featuring ten great books, including works by fellow Book*hug authors @jacobwren.bsky.social, Oisin Curran, and Alisha Piercy. 49thshelf.com/Blog/2026/07...

Committed to Irony · Blog Post · 49th Shelf

A recommended reading list by the author of Koh-i-Noor (Book*hug Press).

49thshelf.com

“Only living art can activate the creative spirit, and only living art is of general significance. For only living art gives expression to the emotions, yearnings, reactions and ambitions which as a result of society’s shortcomings we all share.” ― Constant, Manifesto (1948)

"Things I once enjoyed / Just keep me employed now" - Billie Eilish, Getting Older

"I have a feeling it might have something to do with being old, and for that to work I still might have to get a bit older. I consider the idea that when the rest of my beard turns white, I will begin the process." radicalcut.blogspot.com/2026/07/my-t...

“The media simply can’t discuss a work of literature without pointing to some writer-hero. And yet there is no work of literature that is not the fruit of tradition, of many skills, of a sort of collective intelligence.” — Elena Ferrante

Sometimes I think I'm Kafka. And that's when I truly know I'm not.

I'm currently serializing my novel-in-progress Failure Finds its Happy End. It is a novel about a person who decides to start an art movement: radicalcut.blogspot.com/2026/07/seri...

"Our words don’t suit prophecies anymore. That power is left to other species: to oak trees, for example, to the tides, which through their restlessness carry a phosphorescence we’re not equipped to hear." - Etel Adnan, Shifting the Silence

"But putting something in a performative frame or committing it to the printed word involve a sophisticated understanding of authenticity where irony, fluidity and hallucination are part of the deal..." radicalcut.blogspot.com/2026/07/mich...

“So much of our social justice work comes from creating worlds that reflect the opposite of our loneliness.” - KeiyaA

There’s been a lot of self-sabotage in my one precious life.

“Poetry seldom occurs in poems. Poetry only occurs when words cause action.” ― Raoul Vaneigem

“One of the lies writers tell themselves is that all things should be understood.” – Sarah Krasnostein, The Believer

Also, I can't believe I just publicly admitted I've posted on Tumblr 16,017 times. The addict has a need to confess: radicalcut.blogspot.com/2022/12/four...

"The question, then, is how might we fill the best with passionate intensity?" – Simon Critchley, Infinitely Demanding

It seems these days everyone wants to sell out, and my avant garde position is just kind of dinosaur time.

My mind like a steel trap, and I’m caught in it.

"In my day-to-day life, I already spend a great deal of time alone, consumed by introspective thoughts. In a way, this residency formalized this process." radicalcut.blogspot.com/2026/07/my-t...

The more your cultural product reinforces the status quo the more likely it is to be widely distributed.

"Time and again I hear stories about idealistic people, wholly devoted to worthy causes, who wind up tearing one another apart over relatively minor disagreements before retreating to their former lives of quiet desperation." – Lisa Wells, Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World

If you really want to understand something, try to change it.

“Living is a scary proposition. Being a person in the world and having attachments and trying to do anything is a scary proposition. It's like stepping into a desert.” ― Grant Maierhofer, The Compleat Lungfish

"In the end I’m not so certain it matters which idea I choose. If I had the idea in the first place it probably means I have at least some interest in doing it. Any idea can result in good work, it just depends what you do with it." radicalcut.blogspot.com/2026/07/my-t...

Despite my reluctance, I seem to just keep writing books.

“Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.” ― Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle

“I am aware that, every time I have a conversation with a book, I benefit from someone’s decision against silence.” - Yiyun Li

I don't remember being this impatient when I was younger. Does aging make you impatient? Two things on their way to being finished, and yet I still have to wait: radicalcut.blogspot.com/2026/07/does...