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Five-Year Plans and Other Shadows Up Ahead
On serendipity, the future, and the lantern in hand
Aug 20
•
Matt Cardin
12
2
Let the Book Find Its Way
Natalie Goldberg, creative trust, and the long way back to the page
Aug 12
•
Matt Cardin
14
2
3
Four Years Into Forever
AI, anti-AI writing, and the tyranny of the immediate
Aug 2
•
Matt Cardin
23
10
7
July 2026
Cosmic Horror Is a Zen Koan
Lovecraft and the dream of being trapped inside a haunted cosmos
Jul 29
•
Matt Cardin
38
11
10
Creativity, Horror, and the Worlds Beyond the Ego
The beyond without and the beyond within, in my new interview for Sean Hood’s Undercraft
Jul 24
•
Matt Cardin
12
2
You May Not Be Blocked. You May Be Fallow.
Creative incubation and the wisdom of waiting in an age of instant output
Jul 22
•
Matt Cardin
26
8
AI and the Desire to Think
The coming cognitive divide
Jul 7
•
Matt Cardin
22
9
3
Can a Serious Writer Use AI Without Losing His Soul?
A meditation on AI, authorship, and the line between assistance and abdication
Jul 6
•
Matt Cardin
42
45
11
June 2026
The Living Dark Reader, No. 2
A quarterly companion for deep reading. In this issue: the autumn longing, selfhood, language, and the hidden life of experience.
Jun 15
•
Matt Cardin
19
6
2
Alan Watts on Hints of a Forgotten Paradise
Transcendental longing and the memory of home
Jun 10
•
Matt Cardin
14
5
1
May 2026
The Monastery of Your Life
Morris Berman and the case for the solitary monastic ideal
May 18
•
Matt Cardin
27
2
6
An Unfinished Story That I Don't Remember Writing
A fragment of weird religious horror from my archives
May 1
•
Matt Cardin
12
8
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