Fri 12 Feb 2021 02.30 EST
In 2018, the American writer Patricia Lockwood published an essay entitled âHow Do We Write Now?â. The piece was an attempt to reckon with the damage done to a creative mind by years of excessive exposure to the internet. Of her efforts to reclaim some mental space from the endless swirling absurdity of online life, she wrote: âIf I look at a phone first thing the phone becomes my brain for the day [â¦] If I open up Twitter and the first thing I see is the presidentâs weird bunched ass above a sand dune as he swings a golf club I am doomed. The ass will take up residence in my mind. It will install a gold toilet there.â