Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood recounts her maddening experiences with COVID-19: “I had developed a low-grade fever. My head ached, my neck, my back. My eyes ached in their orbits and streamed tears whenever I tried to read or watch television. My mouth tasted like a foreign penny.”

“I was hired as an assassin. You don’t bring in a 37-year-old woman to review John Updike in the year of our Lord 2019 unless you’re hoping to see blood on the ceiling.” It’s all uphill (or downhill?) from this perfect lede.

Patricia Lockwood travels through the internet in this piece, first delivered as a lecture at the British Museum in February 2019.

The world’s a mess, but that doesn’t mean creativity must end. Staying creative just requires great effort.

“America has always offered to drink anything for five dollars, no matter how disgusting.” Patricia Lockwood, on the ground at a Trump rally, attempting to understand what’s happening in the United States.

“The rape joke is that you were 19 years old.

“The rape joke is that he was your boyfriend.

“The rape joke it wore a goatee. A goatee.

“Imagine the rape joke looking in the mirror, perfectly reflecting back itself, and grooming itself to look more like a rape joke. ‘Ahhhh,’ it thinks. ‘Yes. A goatee.‘”