When I interviewed Patricia Lockwood for the Rumpus, she said of her then-forthcoming book Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, “No one even wants poetry to sound like this, but now it does.” Her thousands of fans would not agree, but certain reviewers, it turns out, would. Adam Plunkett for the New Yorker’s website and Jonathan Farmer for the Slate Book Review both regard the book in part as a roundabout way of mocking people like them.

I have gone back and forth several times over the last few days on whether or not it would be worth addressing Adam Plunkett's New Yorker.com review of poet Patricia Lockwood's latest book here. I don't write much on topical issues to begin with, there have been plenty of more noteworthy stories about women's issues in the public eye over the last week or so, and it's not exactly hurting her career any. Also,…