Lockwood, Patricia

The Communal Mind [from London Review of Books]

February 21, 2019

"Still, she stood there, and locked them in her mind for an hour."

She was asked to give a lecture at the British Museum. This was hardly deserved. Still, she stood there, and locked them in her mind for an hour. Her face was the fresh imprint of her age. She spoke the words that were there for her to speak; she wore the only kind of shirt available at that time. It was not possible to see where she had gone wrong, where she would go wrong. She said: garfield is a body-positivity icon. She said: abraham lincoln is daddy. She said: the eels in London are on cocaine. It was fitting finally to appear in that place, an exhibit herself from far away, collaged together in body and mind, monstrous in the eyes of the future, an imbecile before the Rosetta Stone, disturber of the deadest tombs, butterfly catcher and butterfly killer, soon to be folded between two pages herself, and speak about the liftedness of little and large things.
(p. 14)

Architecture::Rooms::Locked In

Reading

Patrica Lockwood, "The Communal Mind," London Review of Books 41:4 (February 21, 2019): 11-14. <Link to www.lrb.co.uk>

02/22/2019