Pathemata: Or, The Story of My Mouth

by Maggie Nelson

Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth, is an experiment in interiority written in the pandemic studio. Something of a companion piece to 2009’s Bluets, Pathemata merges a pain diary chronicling a decade of jaw pain with dreams and dailies, eventually blurring the lines between embodied, unconscious, and everyday life. In scrupulously distilled prose, Pathemata offers a tragicomic portrait of a particularly unnerving and isolating moment in recent history, as well as an abiding account of how it feels to inhabit a mortal body in struggle to connect with others. Formally inspired by Hervé Guibert’s The Mausoleum of Lovers, and conceptually guided by Gilles Deleuze’s notion of artist as symptomologist, Pathemata is yet another urgent innovation from Maggie Nelson in the art of life-writing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Memoir, Essays, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, The United States Of America

80 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2025

About the author

Maggie Nelson is the author of nine books of poetry and prose, many of which have become cult classics defying categorization. Her nonfiction titles include the National Book Critics Circle Award winner and New York Times bestseller The Argonauts (Graywolf Press, 2015), The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (Norton, 2011; a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Bluets (Wave Books, 2009; named by Bookforum as one of the top 10 best books of the past 20 years), The Red Parts (Free Press, 2007; reissued by Graywolf, 2016), and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (U of Iowa Press, 2007). Her poetry titles include Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Jane: A Murder (Soft Skull, 2005; finalist for the PEN/ Martha Albrand Art of the Memoir). In 2016 she was awarded a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. She has also been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction, an NEA in Poetry, an Innovative Literature Fellowship from Creative Capital, and an Arts Writers Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation. She writes frequently on art, including recent catalogue essays on Carolee Schneemann and Matthew Barney. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and has taught literature, writing, art, criticism and theory at the New School, Pratt Institute, and Wesleyan University. For 12 years she taught in the School of Critical Studies at CalArts; in fall 2017 she will join the faculty of USC. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Maggie Nelson wrote a whole book about a dishwasher, I would Very Seriously read it.

[Julie Ehlers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very unsure of this book at the halfway mark, but by the end I'd decided it was incredible.

[makayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

women suffering shouldn’t exist

[leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 my first maggie nelson! i can’t believe i haven’t got around to reading her work before now, because her writing style is exactly up my street. from reading this we seem to have a few things in common - dealing with chronic pain, being sent to speech therapy as a child for talking too fast (a habit i still have so it clearly didn’t work). excited to read more of her books after this!

thank you vintage books for the arc <3

[Amanda Rosso · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do love Maggie Nelson. I really, truly, do. And Pathemata is not a mediocre book by any standards, with its dealing with so many crucial topics of our contemporary society.

However, it is a below-standard book for Nelson. It's not its brevity, we're used to it, it's the impression that at this point, because of Nelson's undeniably sharp intelligence and empathetic, analytical mind, everything that she writes becomes a book no matter what.

This is not a book, it's a dreamlike recollection of moments in the vein of her previous Bluets, but far less cohesive in its scope, and more uncooked.

We need Maggie Nelson more than ever, and I'm glad she's publishing everything that her heart desires, because no matter what she's one of the most relevant, sharp and wildly intelligent writers we have. However, and not out of excessive fastidiousness but out of intellectual honesty, we need to admit it when a book looks more like a collection of abandoned notes than a cohesive work. Acritical adoration wouldn't do her any good either.

[Annie Tate Cockrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow wow! Maggie Nelson is it. I love her. I love this. It feels very similar to Bluets in some ways but from a more grown up point of view. Nelson's writing is dreamy while also being incredibly grounded and cuts through me like a knife.

[Allison]

MOTHER.

[Ada · Rating 3 out of 5]

No m'ha convençut la constant intromissió de somnis. En format és que el més s'assembla a Bluets des de Bluets, però molt lluny de Bluets.

[Six · Rating 1 out of 5]

wat was dit? een koortsdroom die nergens heen ging? een gigantische zonde van het schrijf- en denktalent van Maggie Nelson? hoe uitermate wereldvreemd en toondoof was dit “boek” me. jammer jammer jammer.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

She is one monster smarty pants.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henkilökohtainen suru- ja kipukirja pandemian, ystävän kuoleman ja kroonisen kivun keskeltä. Nelsonin kenties henkilökohtaisin teos, kaunis, surrealistinen, ihanan vino uni-, kipu- ja menetyspäiväkirja. Rakastin.

[Isabella LoCicero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, your words circle around what we are all trying to express (maybe not the mouth pain part, but everything else).

[Eric]

I reviewed Nelson's latest for my new book review site: https://ocreviewofbooks.org/2025/04/0...

If you'd like to write for the site, let me know!!

[Gaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

I love intelligent women and I will just keep loving Maggie Nelson’s writing style. We all know by now that I like dream-like writing, so this had potential to be right up my street and it was.

I read the full thing out loud to myself all in one go, and I think that really helped me emerge, understand and feel a bit more than I maybe usually would.

[Päivi Metsäniemi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luin Pathematan yhdeltä istumalta Berliinin Vabali-kylpylässä vietetyn lomapäivän aikana. Se oli juuri oikea tapa uppoutua hetkeksi tähän lyhyeen, briljanttiin kirjaan. Pathemata tarkoittaa kärsimystä, kipua, ja Nelson pureutuukin tässä kirjassa omaan krooniseen leukakipuunsa ja kahteen mahdottomuuteen; mahdottomuuteen saada siihen apua ja toisaalta kirjoittaa siitä niin, että kokemus välittyisi. Jo Virginia Woolf kirjoittaa tästä mahdottomuudesta, ”kieli kuivuu” kivun edessä (On being ill, löytyy Kiitäjän kuolema -esseekokoelmasta suomennettuna). Leukakivun lisäksi kirjailijan elämässä tapahtuu/on tapahtumatta paljon muutakin; pandemia muuttaa elämän, parisuhde on ilmeisissä vaikeuksissa, lapsi kasvaaa (ja käy etäkoulua), rakas ystävä kuolee, isän kuolema on käsittelemättä.

Kappaleissa vuorottelevat reaalielämän tapahtumat, haasteet ja mietelmät ja unikuvat, jotka jonkun muun kirjoittamana vaivaannuttaisivat ja väsyttäisivät, mutta Nelson näyttää nerokkaasti, miten unet ovat ja miten niistä tulee luovan prosessin materiaalia. Kroonisen kivun kuvaus ja hoitomenetelmien etsimisen epätoivo on kirjoitettu kauniisti, monipuolisesti ja ymmärtävästi. Väärät profeetat saavat osansa - lääkärinä tätä oli kiehtovaa lukea, ja erityisen ilahtunut olin siitä, miten selkeästi Nelson asettuu tutkitun tiedon ja tieteeseen perustuvan lääketieteen kannalle (sanomatta suoraan tästä asiasta mitään).

Yhden tähden menetys lyhyydestä; Argonauteista alkaen olen toivonut, että Nelson palaisi autofiktiivisen kirjoittamisen pariin, ja vaikka olen nauttinut puhtaamman filosofisista teoksista valtavasti, olisin lukenut tätä kymmenen kertaa pidempään. Toivottavasti kirja suomennetaan pian.

[abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5) always a pleasure to revisit maggie nelson’s life and work! i’ve read enough of her books at this point to feel like i’m returning to the life of a friend.

pathemata is a story of chronic pain and the exhausting journey of trying to find a diagnosis, an answer, or any sort of relief while also trying to raise her child during the pandemic. she also writes about her unstable relationship with her partner and the tragic and sudden death of a close friend. it’s not necessarily an easy read, but a beautiful one, for sure.

this book, like most of her work, is experimental in its structure: formatted in verse, nonlinear, memoir-esque in tone. however, it is unique from her other works in that it includes dreams and nightmares without distinguishing them from her reality. i found this to be a striking representation of how chronic pain infiltrates all aspects of our lives, even while unconscious.

[soph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher for the advance proof copy.

Maggie Nelson always astounds me with the sheer clarity of her writing; this book weaves dreams and realities so deftly that I felt entranced by each entry in this diary of pain. There is something so enjoyable about Nelson’s emphatically strong writing style, and Pathemata is no exception, being both intellectually and emotionally moving and stimulating.

[kate j · Rating 4 out of 5]

words are the net

i can’t really imagine reading and loving this if i was not such a nelson fan, aware of the shape of her life and how this story fits into it from previous autobiography. and yet, i am, and i did read and love this

[Vartika · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally a Maggie Nelson book I didn't enjoy! She writes as beautifully as ever – on pain, loss, betrayal, alienation, the pandemic – but never quite manages to tie it together. All that suffering and only this to show for it...

[Gabrielle Bremshey · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh maggie nelson i love you sosososo much

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

soms herkenbaar maar op veel manieren ook niet
ik voelde het niet!

[smellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

goodreads please add half stars to your rating system! this is not a three but not quite a four. anyway. a rumination on pain that flows between fantasy and reality. in this way, it felt kindred to bluets. however, bluets succeeds where this struggles: bluets is limited and precise, whereas pathemata has a lot to say about a lot of things. that could owe to the subject matter itself: pain and suffering are everywhere, effervescent, and consequently inscrutable.

[Larissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Egal was Maggie Nelson schreibt, es ist immer gut, klug, wohlüberlegt - aber hier einfach nicht kohärent genug. Ich konnte ganz oft nicht interscheiden, was Traum ist und was echt, und zwar so, dass es mein Leseerlebnis bis zum Unverständnis zerklüftet hat. Es ist zu wenig verdichtet, und es fällt auseinander.

[arun · Rating 5 out of 5]

i initially struggled with the stream of conscious narrative style but i let myself get carried by her words and i am so glad i saw it till its end. so much about pain (physical and mental) is us being fixated on it and not enjoying the moments we have had before, after but especially between that pain- we always get a chance for relief

[Amanda Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maggie Nelson remains my favorite writer.

[Mack]

Alright she’s still got it, this was a good afternoon read

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bei Zelda passiert wenigstens nichts Schlimmes, sagt er.
Bei Zelda stirbt man die ganze Zeit, erwidere ich.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

my first maggie nelson! very much enjoyed! loved the blend of fantasy with reality

[Sam Small · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Catherine Bresner at Wave for the beautiful ARC! As expected, I read this all in one sitting. Very very similar to Bluets, but far more anxious and with less philosophical support. You wonder how Nelson's "form" could go anymore rogue and the answer is by leaving reality.

A line that struck me: "I've learned that a lot of the things I think I know are just things I fear."

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dreamy poem / pain diary set in the pandemic that shares a tragicomic coping energy with our days now. You will find company in this mind. You won't always understand where the dreams end and reality starts. I l genuinely aughed and cried in under 80 pages.