Literary Friction - Constraint with Maggie Nelson

Literary Friction

Arts

4.9 • 593 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2021

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can you have freedom without constraint? What role does it play in creativity, and can it be productive as well as limiting? This month our guest is the thinker and writer Maggie Nelson, whose latest book, On Freedom, explores the concept of freedom via four wide-ranging essays about art, sex, drugs and climate. Its subtitle is Four Songs of Care and Constraint, so we thought we’d make this month’s show about the boundaries that are often the counterpoint to freedom. Tune in for Maggie’s thoughts on – to borrow a phrase from Judith Butler – ‘working the trap’, our favourite books about constraint, plus all the usual recommendations. Recommendations on the theme, Constraint: Octavia: The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas, translated by Frank Wynne Carrie: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison General Recommendations: Octavia: Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden-Keefe Maggie: My Brother by Jamaica Kinkaid Carrie: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/october-2021-constraint-with-maggie-nelson Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: litfriction@gmail.com Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Literary Friction. I'm Carrie Plitt, here as always with my co-host Octavia Bright. Hi, Octavia. How are you?
0:26.2	Hi, Carrie. I'm pretty good, actually. It's really nice to be able to say that. I'm really enjoying working on the book I'm writing. And I'm at that stage where I just feel full of optimism about it.
0:38.9	You know, that classic feeling at the start of a new project where it's so precious because
0:44.2	you know it will always end up somewhere very different when you get to the other end, but at the
0:47.9	beginning it just feels full of exciting possibility. So I'm really trying to treasure these
0:52.7	moments of upbeat energy while I have them. And I think also, if I'm being completely honest, it's helped by the fact that all being well, I'm going away on Saturday for my summer holiday. I'm really excited about it. How about you? How are you? I'm so happy that you are good.
1:12.7	That's what I am.
1:15.4	I'm very busy and very tired.
1:19.6	But all of a sudden things are like half back to normal with work.
1:23.6	And I'm trying to readjust and it's actually really overwhelming.
1:27.9	Not that I wish we were back in the pandemic, but it just feels like this odd in between time and I'm very overwhelmed. But trying to remember those long, very samey days of the pandemic
1:35.7	and feel grateful that I can go into London and I can see my friends and, you know, I have a much
1:41.8	fuller life now and that is a good thing. Also, be gentle with yourself because you're also jet lagged, you know? I have a much fuller life now and that is a good thing. Also, be gentle with
1:45.4	yourself because you're also jet lagged, you know? I am also jet lagged, which always makes me
1:50.0	crazy and I always forget. And I'm like, why do I feel bad? Yeah, it's powerful. It's a powerful thing.
1:58.0	Yeah. Yeah, I'm a slave to my circadian rhythms, it seems.
2:03.9	Anyway, on to the show.
2:05.9	Today, we're really excited to welcome the thinker and writer Maggie Nelson,
2:10.8	whose latest book on Freedom attempts to reclaim the meaning of freedom from today's political debates,
2:17.3	exploring this idea in four essays about art, sex, drugs, and climate.
2:21.3	For Maggie, you can't talk about freedom without talking about constraint.
2:26.3	And indeed, the subtitle of On Freedom is Four Songs of Carrying Constraint.
	...

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