The Nothing That Is: Essays on Art, Literature and Being

Essais Series #9

by Johanna Skibsrud

Rather than making "something" out of "nothing," what follows is an endeavour to express the potential of language and thought to encounter what is infinitely beyond both yet to be imagined. In The Nothing That Is , Johanna Skibsrud gathers essays about the very concept of "nothing." Addressing a broad range of topics-including false atrocity tales, so-called fake news, high-wire acts, and telepathy, as well as responses to works by John Ashbery, Virginia Woolf, Anne Carson, and more-these essays seek to decentre our relationship to both the "givenness" of history and to a predictive or probable model of the future. The Nothing That Is explores ways in which poetic language can activate the possibilities replete within our every moment. Skibsrud reveals that within every encounter between a speaking "I" and what exceeds subjectivity, there is a listening "Other," be it community or the objective world. Praise for The Nothing That Is : "Skibsrud adds brilliantly to what we can know of poetry. By entering into the words of Woolf, Oppen, Stephens, Rukeyser, Carson and others, and thinking in our presence, she gives us the experience of touch and beauty and the poem. A friend to Burke's sublime and to Pato?s at the limit, this book urges us to receive poetry's "nothing" for here an abundance lives. Put The Nothing That Is into the hands of whoever is puzzled by or afraid of poetry, into the hands of whoever teaches it!" -Erín Moure "Why do I find Skibsrud's consideration of Nothing essentially hopeful? Because her approach to the possibilities of thinking Nothing arise out of, and include, the despair of Celan's babble-which is to say the incomprehensible, a place where all known structures, including language, have fallen away. Skibsrud invites us to participate in the very human process of re-seeing and remaking the world; she challenges us to venture with her into the unknown, where experience and language empty themselves, then create themselves anew." -Sam Ace, author of Our Weather Our Sea "At some point in my relationship with The Nothing That Is I began to forget that I was reading a collection of essays on art, language, and being, and began, instead, to believe that I was reading a guidebook on how to approach and appreciate outer space. Because, in her recuperative and intimate readings of the often despairing, always life-affirming schisms between what is expressed and what remains inexpressible, Johanna Skibsrud has written a manifesto of liminal, reverberative space, as essential to our understanding of poetry and art, as to that of black holes and the Milky Way." -Brandon Shimoda, author of The Grave on the Wall

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Essays

134 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2019

About the author

Johanna Skibsrud is a Canadian writer whose debut novel The Sentimentalists, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She is also the author of This Will Be Difficult to Explain, as well as two poetry collections. She lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Reviews

[Paul Sutter]

The series SEINFIELD was often hailed as a series about nothing. That seems to be an underlying theme in THE NOTHING THAT IS. But it is a book that is satisfying and relevant. Author Johanna Skibsrud won the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2010. Now more than a decade later, she has released this interesting book.
The book features eleven food for thought essays. They focus on “nothing,” discussing such subjects as war, and literary icons Virginia Woolf and Arthur Miller. She also tackles “fakes news” thanks to Donald Trump.
She looks at the Vietnam War as a case in point, reflecting on the atrocities against innocent people, that were not what they appeared to be. Her father served as a Marine during that War, witnessing many horrific scenes. Yet, there were many other occurrences that were said to be exaggerated.
She comments about life beyond death, with those people who thought that once they reached the other side, they would somehow be able to connect with those still in the land of the living. It makes for great speculation and a leap of faith.
Other areas she mentions include the falling man who leaped from the Twin Towers in New York on September 11 2001. She notes it was by choice and definitely not a heroic feat.
The essays are thought-provoking and controversial, letting the reader decide if this book was about nothing or filled with substance.

[Sumayyah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...to evoke the possibility of a relationship with what exists beyond the bounds of subjective perspective and understanding is to take a large, perhaps even impossible, responsibility. It is the weight of this impossible responsibility that, Rukeyser suggests, we seem to crave 'above all things.'"

[Lanie Tankard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's my review in The Woven Tale Press:

https://www.thewoventalepress.net/201...

[Lisa Nikolits · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review to come in March.