On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint Free Audiobook Download by Maggie Nelson

Maggie Nelson's book of interviews and poems, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint offers a female perspective on freedom that is at once spiritual and practical.

On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint is a 2016 audiobook by Maggie Nelson. It's four songs that explore how different conceptions of freedom, personal liberty, and human rights affect personal decisions, mass movements, and public policies.

In all four songs, a person's freedom is limited by or submitted to others. For example, in "Ode to Happiness," the speaker opens with the idea of freedom: "I've been walking these streets for hours and I know that there's an open door to freedom waiting for me somewhere." He builds up to a feeling of contentment and ecstasy before singing about how his happiness is limited by others--either in the past or present--who might not share it. On Freedom doesn't just explore what happens when people are free, but also how they respond with care and constraint.

Maggie Nelson writes four songs of freedom and constraint. Her songs take the form of music, conversations, and poetry to explore the ideas of self-reliance and the limits of what it means to be free. Freedom is seen throughout these poems, but is also constrained by self-knowledge.

The audiobook release of On Freedom is a delight. Nelson's prose is enthralling, her voice soothing and lyrical. "I am free," she narrates in the first song, "Of all the things that I have ever done." The listener becomes captivated by her words; at once memorizing them, taking them in for later life-inspiration, then listening to them again and again. Nelson says it best: "There's so much I want to say/But so little I can say."

On Freedom is a audiobook consisting of four songs, with each song representing a particular emotion. Maggie Nelson's voice is vibrant and beautiful and makes the story feel lived in and intimate. She sets the tone by introducing each song with an acoustic guitar that plays a brief melody before fading away. The lyrics are so simple yet powerful.