The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Nelson, Maggie. On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint. Graywolf Press, 2021.

Maggie Nelson's cultural critique, On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint, offers a close examination of what it means to have, possess, or practice freedom. By examining the expansive topic through the four key contexts of art, sex, drugs, and climate, Nelson is able to explore how contemporary cancel culture might threaten or enable notions of free expression.

In "Introduction," Nelson presents her reasons for wanting to write a book on freedom. She acknowledges all of the possible dangers and complications of confronting such a project, yet does not shy away from the endeavor. She outlines the manner in which she will approach the subject. She says that instead of assuming a purely political or historical stance, she will examine issues of freedom within the context of four realms: art, sex, drugs, and climate. She references a range of thinkers and writers in order to establish her overarching theses and explorations for the sections to come.

In "Art Song," Nelson considers what it means to make art freely. She argues that art offers the individual a realm in which she might go to think, question, challenge, and transgress the ideas, people, concepts, and beliefs most significant to her. When the contemporary culture attacks the artist for making supposedly offensive work, Nelson says that the culture is limiting the artist's ability to create freely. The artist should not be censored by any collective mind or governing body. Instead, the artist should assume the responsibility of self-censorship. Nelson does not offer particular guidelines for this practice, but instead encourages each artist to find her own way of producing art that does not harm others but conveys the artist's primary concerns. Though art might present a culture or society with innumerable disputes or questions, Nelson believes it is a way to express the experience of being alive.

In "The Ballad of Sexual Optimism," Nelson considers what it means to be both sexually liberated and sexually optimistic. She argues in defense of sexual positivity, as she believes the notion offers the individual the freedom to express her pleasures, desires, and identities however she chooses. If one resists sexual optimism, she risks robbing sex of its transformative possibilities, and threatening the relationship between sex and all other realms of human experience. Nelson refers to a range of feminist and queer theorists and writers in crafting her arguments. She relies upon their writings in order to convey the complexity and nuance of her own explorations. By the end of the section, Nelson's tone becomes more hopeful. She entreaties her reader to look upon the past with gratefulness and towards the future with curious determination.

In "Drug Fugue," Nelson wonders at the human proclivity towards using drugs. She acknowledges that drugs both offer the individual the opportunity to free herself from the confines of reality and the self, while also presenting her with a litany of other hazards. Drugs, therefore, offer the possibility of psychological liberation and psychological and physical bondage. Nelson adopts Avital Ronell's approach to writing about drug use and addiction, relying upon drug narratives for reference. Though these stories offer expansive possibilities for what it means to use drugs and to quit using drugs, Nelson also acknowledges their deficiencies. Referencing her own reliance upon alcohol and her decision to become sober, Nelson wonders if there might be other means of experiencing similarly freeing sensations.

In "Riding the Blinds," Nelson considers what it might mean for the contemporary citizen to sacrifice her current comforts in the name of preserving the next generation's health and wellbeing. She believes that it is important not to become overcome by despair when considering the climate crisis, yet also argues in defense of responding emotionally to the issue. She believes that engaging with one's emotions related to the crisis might allow the individual to believe in and understand it better. She also believes that it is important for this generation to act in defense of tomorrow's generation.

In "Afterword," Nelson reflects upon the project and process of writing the text. She lists all of the lessons that the work has taught her, and seeks a new form of thinking and being beyond it.