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An old friend of mine would talk about this book a lot. Finally got around to reading it this past fall and it just sucked me in. July has such an incredible imagination and ability to craft worlds with her stories. It inspired me so much, and has really changed how I think about my own lyric writing
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My favorite read of 2024. Ive always been a fan of Miranda July and this novel is quintessentially her: tender, funny, weird, perverted and so in her own head.
one of my favorite excerpts:
"But to be clear, I had not, at any age, desired a specific male body in the way I did now. While all my boyfriends and crushes had been reasonably good-looking, my attraction hovered up near their face, where they kept their talent and power. Lusting for the whole length of a person, head to toe, was what body-rooted fuckers did, Jordi, and men. Now, for the first time, I understood what all the fuss was about. How something beautiful could strike your heart, move you, bring you down on your knees and then, somewhat perversely, you wanted to fuck that pure, beautiful thing. Sex was a way to have it, to not just look at it but to be with it. I suddenly understood all of classical art. The endless carved nudes, Venus in her shell, David. And sexy clothes. I had worn them without really understanding why, thinking of sexy as one of many styles, not realizing it was the only style. You should always be emerging from a shell if possible. Without knowing it, without really understanding it, I had been a body for other people but I had not gotten to have one myself. I had not participated in the infuriating pleasure of wanting a real and specific body on Earth. I lay in the center of the bed, unblinking. Wanting a body had a seriousness to it. When you said you might never recover, you really meant it. This kind of desire made a wound you just had to carry with you for the rest of your life. But this was still better than never knowing. Or I hoped it was. Because in truth it was like a bad dream, a nightmare. Life didn’t just get better and better. You could actually miss out on something and that was that. That was your chance and now it was over. I wondered if I would continue with my work and then I realized that my work was all I had now. I had gotten it completely wrong—I thought I was laboring toward a prize, but the prize was right there, I already had it, and work was something I could do afterward, after I was no longer young enough to be beautiful and could no longer be wanted by someone beautiful."
Jan 29, 2025
This essay, like much of her work, has changed my life. God damn.
Apr 1, 2025
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Miranda July has been one of those people that I’ve forever (or at least as long as I’ve been on Tumblr) known that one day I was gonna get to and finally the time has come. I finished this book yesterday and really loved it. I’m so excited to dive into more of her work. I remembered I had a copy of The First Bad Man and started reading it the second I got home from work.
Feb 11, 2025
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This is my go to coffee shop in nyc. Before covid they would be open late serving really creative cocktails and playing albums on vinyl. Since then they’ve not really brought it back but I still love going since they don’t allow anyone to use laptops which creates more of a social environment. The coffee is also some of my favorite in the city and they bake everything in house.
Jul 2, 2024
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For those that are unfamiliar green soap is what is used to clean tattoos. I know this sounds crazy but arguably this could be one of the best smells on the planet. I feel like I’m on my strange addiction every time I get a tattoo cause I just want to smell the green soap bottle but I promise I’m not insane it smells amazing and is probably part of the reason I keep getting tattoos.
Jul 2, 2024
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This book made me feel way less bad about myself. I find it so impressive that someone like Scott can be so vulnerable in a book like this and really expose his brain the way he did. The book is about divorce and cuts through the before and after — how they met and before they met and all. It made me feel so many emotions and really helped me get through a difficult time.
Jul 2, 2024