The poet cites the following works as inspiration: Franz Kafka, The Trial, Diaries 1910-1923 Rainier Maria Rilke, Rodin Paul Ricoeur, On Interpretation Martin Heidegger, Country Path Conversations Giorgio Agamben, Nudities Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit Terayama Sh¿ji, The Labyrinth and The Dead Sea: My Theatre Yoshikuni Igarashi, Bodies of Memory Maeda Ai, Text and the City E.M. Cioran, Drawn and Quartered Marjorie Perloff, The Vienna Paradox: A Memoir Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy Fredric Jameson, The Hegel Variations Tilman Osterwold & Thomas Knubben, Emil Nolde: Unpainted Pictures Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space Hijikata Tatsumi, Yameru Mai-hime Yoshioka Minoru, Umayahashi Nikki Kobayashi Toshiaki, Shutai no Yukue Norman Fischer writes this about Eric Selland's OBJECT STATES: "No object that isn't a state of mind or being, no state of mind or being that doesn't appear as an object, an event, a thought, a phrase. This haunting philosophical impasse and delight is the subject of Eric Selland's quietly beautiful book in which nearly every echoing sentence invites pondering. 'The poet screaming inside a fish.' 'A day which is merely a symptom.' Do you know where or who you are?" - NORMAN FISCHER Jane Joritz-Nakagawa writes this about Eric Selland OBJECT STATES: "Eric Selland finds 'invisible doors' in spaces we did not know existed but are pleased to meet. 'Language is a city' both east and west and at once familiar and unfamiliar in 'the absent presence of memory.' A fine work both haunting and revelatory from one of the most skillful of contemporary poets." - JANE JORITZ-N