ON FREEDOM
New Releases
ON FREEDOM
On Freedom is essential reading not only because it addresses some of the most critical and complex issues today but also because it confronts those conflicts directly, with nuance and without fear. Maggie Nelson splits the book into four, largely academic essays as she grapples with conversations around what makes good art, the sexual landscape following the Me Too movement, addiction and drug dependency, and climate nihilism. By circling these topics with a broader concern about what it means to practice freedom, Nelson provides a sort of blueprint for wading into the nuanced waters of public discourse with an openness for curiosity, empathy, and compassion and an acknowledgment of the anxiety such conversations provoke about our personal and collective futures.
The first essay, “Art Song,” is perhaps the most impactful and relevant. It delves into censorship, the right to make art, and the privilege that is being paid to distribute one’s work and to garner subsequent attention from doing so. Rather than publicly react to and condemn an artist or work that is harmful or in poor taste, Nelson instead advocates for not granting one’s attention, time, or care to such a project and instead focusing on something that furthers a conversation or cause one believes in. She also advocates for the right to not make art mean anything, particularly for those with marginalized identities, and for this larger sense of freedom of expression that includes not speaking to a social, cultural, or political issue.
There’s no need to agree with Nelson on every point to value the heavily researched and citation-heavy book—there’s a presumption inherent that critical readers won’t find themselves of the exact same mind on every position—and that’s because On Freedom’s most crucial and overarching lesson is that ambiguity and indeterminacy are inescapable. This acknowledgment, that black-and-white thinking is flawed, permeates the book. The result is a text that embraces long-held So Textual values of slowing down, reading with intention and criticality, and fostering an enduring curiosity that will inevitably breed more questions than answers.
Written by So Textual
Continue Reading
