Patricia Lockwood writes about the Internet from a unique position, as for many she seems to have sprang forth from the Internet herself, like Athena emerging from the head of Zeus and bringing much of the goo that process implies. Once dubbed “The Smutty-Metaphor Queen of Lawrence, Kansas,” Lockwood – not lately of Kansas, still frequently of arresting metaphor – came to national attention with her acerbic, surreal twitter presence. In 2014 her viral poem “Rape Joke” blended autobiography, snappy observation, and morbid humor. In the midst of a typically noisy and unkempt online discourse, it commanded the kind of reverent attention rarely afforded poetry and launched her reputation as a distinctly fearless and sardonic voice. Since then she’s contributed poetry, a memoir, literary criticism and, this past year, her first novel.
No One is Talking About This, has two distinct halves. It’s possible you’ll like one half more than the other but I can’t say for sure which one. The first immerses the reader in a world dominated by “the portal” – a way of referring to the Internet without referring to the Internet that sounds a too cute at first but effectively keeps modern phenomena at an appropriate distance for examination. The writing is in discreet tweet-sized chunks that sometimes flow one to another, sometimes turn on a dime. It preserves the language and the shibboleths of the Extremely Online, reveling in phrases and ideas that can be mastered and remixed with a minimal amount of study – but that change so rapidly they require constant vigilance to keep up. The specific references could use footnotes ala T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” if all of his mythology and history had occurred within a matter of months and been forgotten in the same amount of time (a kind soul did put together an explainer of every meme in the book for reference).
But luckily for those of us who are Casually Online at best, Lockwood is doing more than reminding us of that kerfuffle over whether peas belong in guacamole. She’s interested in how daily interactions with “the portal” teach us how to speak, how to react, how to think. The second half retains the format of the first, but circumstances make the story leave the portal for stretches at a time. I hope you find the contrast as affecting as I did.
Solute Book Club synergy: Lockwood was inspired to become a poet after reading L.M. Montgomery!
Join us by reading No One is Talking About This during the month of April and return for a discussion article on April 29th.