“Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.” Justin Clemens gets his Cordelia on to invoke the radical movement of nothingness, or desire, which is at the heart of literature’s power. In response to the proposed trigger warnings for literary texts in American universities he argues:

“They’re scared of the power of writing, not of the content…The thing about desire is so much in the world wants to get rid of it. And one of the nothingnesses (whether of beauty, or of a literary power or artistic power) is to once again open up a little bit where something that we can’t control but that’s nevertheless very intimate with us may take us along tragic or glorious roots. That actually there’s that play which can’t be locked down, controlled, shut off or otherwise canalised.”

Listen to the entire conversation in episode 1 of the podcast:

http://www.hookturn.com.au/literarypunk/