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mtthwkrl's review against another edition
5.0
Wow.
I will be thinking about the bold ideas in this book for days and months and years.
Reading the opening sections of the book as Lewis lays out his concepts of gift exchange, market exchange, the way that they parallel logos and eros, and the exploitation and life draining that can happen when different modes of exchange are used inappropriately electrified me. It was like finding out the proper name to a geographic feature that you have always known, but did not know this history of. There are ideas I read that have been deeply held in my being without being able to recognize their name or their logic.
I did not follow most of the critical writing on Whitman and Pound.
It's also made me think a lot about the futility of wishing for a context and time that is more friendly to art, and the importance of finding the new structures to support and patronize art in the present. Like with a person, there is usually less of a point to wishing they were different than the hard work of finding a way to coexist with them.
I will be thinking about the bold ideas in this book for days and months and years.
Reading the opening sections of the book as Lewis lays out his concepts of gift exchange, market exchange, the way that they parallel logos and eros, and the exploitation and life draining that can happen when different modes of exchange are used inappropriately electrified me. It was like finding out the proper name to a geographic feature that you have always known, but did not know this history of. There are ideas I read that have been deeply held in my being without being able to recognize their name or their logic.
I did not follow most of the critical writing on Whitman and Pound.
It's also made me think a lot about the futility of wishing for a context and time that is more friendly to art, and the importance of finding the new structures to support and patronize art in the present. Like with a person, there is usually less of a point to wishing they were different than the hard work of finding a way to coexist with them.
philipkenner's review against another edition
3.0
Gifted to me by Henry Sheeran, crown prince of the gift economy and its gratitudes.
At its core, The Gift is a remarkable testament to the spirit of art making. Inside of all creativity, there is an inherent gift: something to give away, receive, and and give away again. There are real stakes to the gift economy, and Lewis Hyde underlines many of these creative considerations with enthusiasm. His writing is rich with research, emotion, and import.
Some things about the book with which I struggled:
For one, Hyde repeats himself. I came across many of the same conclusions, only said differently. I felt each chapter dragging in its own way, especially the chapter on usury. Once I reached the brilliant chapter on Walt Whitman, I felt a double frustration that it had taken so long to get to what I felt was the real magma center of the book. I also felt frustrated at the amount of times Hyde would clarify himself, saying “I do not mean to say [this]” or “What I mean is [this].” At times, the writing felt overwhelmed by its own exquisite detail, like a renaissance painting with multiple scenes and colors and vistas. It’s gorgeous to look at, but your eye and mind cannot rest. Many things could have been said more simply.
Secondly, Hyde’s handling of antisemitism was subpar. I know the book was written in the late 70s/early 80s, and I don’t intend to hold a decades old book to present day standards. However, it deserves pointing out that the Ezra Pound chapter on antisemitism made me wildly uncomfortable, and I often write about antisemitism in my own work. It’s crucial to frame antisemitism as violent and ludicrous, not merely inconvenient or unfortunate. Hyde doesn’t do a stellar job of negotiating what is and is not useful to share. Why include a block quote from Ezra Pound advocating for genocide, especially after you’ve already included pages of quotes about Pound’s conspiracy theories? Why include an antisemitic Grimm fairy tale that’s bordering on irrelevant? I would never advocate for shielding our eyes from hatred, but at a certain point, you begin to give that hatred a platform. I was especially frustrated because this book was about the gift economy and the power of creativity. I understand Hyde’s point was that Pound’s hatred blocks his gift, thus limiting his creativity, but I found this an inadequate reason to include so much of that hatred in its bare form. By the end of the chapter, I felt Hyde was positing something soft, almost forgiving, along the lines of: “Pound was advocating for the death of Jews, and he stopped being able to write poems, the poor thing!” That’s a watered down conclusion at best.
All of this being said, I’m confident the more resonant lessons from this book will stay with me long after I put it back on my shelf. It bears repeating that the Walt Whitman chapter is exceptional scholarship. I anticipate returning to The Gift as I try to make a life for myself as a writer and teacher.
At its core, The Gift is a remarkable testament to the spirit of art making. Inside of all creativity, there is an inherent gift: something to give away, receive, and and give away again. There are real stakes to the gift economy, and Lewis Hyde underlines many of these creative considerations with enthusiasm. His writing is rich with research, emotion, and import.
Some things about the book with which I struggled:
For one, Hyde repeats himself. I came across many of the same conclusions, only said differently. I felt each chapter dragging in its own way, especially the chapter on usury. Once I reached the brilliant chapter on Walt Whitman, I felt a double frustration that it had taken so long to get to what I felt was the real magma center of the book. I also felt frustrated at the amount of times Hyde would clarify himself, saying “I do not mean to say [this]” or “What I mean is [this].” At times, the writing felt overwhelmed by its own exquisite detail, like a renaissance painting with multiple scenes and colors and vistas. It’s gorgeous to look at, but your eye and mind cannot rest. Many things could have been said more simply.
Secondly, Hyde’s handling of antisemitism was subpar. I know the book was written in the late 70s/early 80s, and I don’t intend to hold a decades old book to present day standards. However, it deserves pointing out that the Ezra Pound chapter on antisemitism made me wildly uncomfortable, and I often write about antisemitism in my own work. It’s crucial to frame antisemitism as violent and ludicrous, not merely inconvenient or unfortunate. Hyde doesn’t do a stellar job of negotiating what is and is not useful to share. Why include a block quote from Ezra Pound advocating for genocide, especially after you’ve already included pages of quotes about Pound’s conspiracy theories? Why include an antisemitic Grimm fairy tale that’s bordering on irrelevant? I would never advocate for shielding our eyes from hatred, but at a certain point, you begin to give that hatred a platform. I was especially frustrated because this book was about the gift economy and the power of creativity. I understand Hyde’s point was that Pound’s hatred blocks his gift, thus limiting his creativity, but I found this an inadequate reason to include so much of that hatred in its bare form. By the end of the chapter, I felt Hyde was positing something soft, almost forgiving, along the lines of: “Pound was advocating for the death of Jews, and he stopped being able to write poems, the poor thing!” That’s a watered down conclusion at best.
All of this being said, I’m confident the more resonant lessons from this book will stay with me long after I put it back on my shelf. It bears repeating that the Walt Whitman chapter is exceptional scholarship. I anticipate returning to The Gift as I try to make a life for myself as a writer and teacher.
emmavt's review against another edition
5.0
I cannot fully express here how important this book is. If you ever heard a little voice in your head, telling you that you might be a little bit creative, and that maybe the way our world seems to be structured does not value creativity, and that maybe that's not a good thing, this book will explain that little voice, and make you believe it. Not a wishywashy book by any means, this is academic. Originally published in part in the Kenyon Review (Lewis Hyde is now a professor at Kenyon College (what up, alma mater)), this book is a heavy hitter, and it's all worth it. Read this book.
kdraw333's review against another edition
4.0
The Gift tries to reconcile the conflict between gift exchange and the market in the life of an artist. It's not a practical book. It doesn't offer any tips on how to make it easier to create while holding down your day job or how to make money from your efforts. Instead, Hyde explores the commerce of art as a gift exchange, using anthropological, historical and literary examples to illustrate his arguments.
At first it felt like I was waiting through a very long set-up for Hyde to get to his conclusion, but then I let myself be carried along happily. The richness and breadth of his research is incredible and it's worth reading just to learn about Walt Whitman's Osiris-inspired poetry; how Ezra Pound's proposals for a perishable 'vegetable money' eventually led him to Fascism; and examples of the differing takes on gift and capital exchange across cultures and time periods. It reminded me that art is essentially about gratitude. A really heartening read when you find yourself in a soul-poor capitalist economy, struggling to find answers in art with no obvious utility.
At first it felt like I was waiting through a very long set-up for Hyde to get to his conclusion, but then I let myself be carried along happily. The richness and breadth of his research is incredible and it's worth reading just to learn about Walt Whitman's Osiris-inspired poetry; how Ezra Pound's proposals for a perishable 'vegetable money' eventually led him to Fascism; and examples of the differing takes on gift and capital exchange across cultures and time periods. It reminded me that art is essentially about gratitude. A really heartening read when you find yourself in a soul-poor capitalist economy, struggling to find answers in art with no obvious utility.
zamreads's review against another edition
3.0
This book interested me more as a giver & receiver of gifts than it interested me as an artist. It was an enjoyable read to work my way through and years later I still find myself thinking back to anecdotes and ideas from The Gift.
s_books's review against another edition
2.0
The subtitle of this book, Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World, is somewhat misleading. The artist is not really talked about until the conclusion. The rest of the book is really just an anthropological/sociological look at gift exchange. Hyde himself admits this, albeit in the very last chapter: "Nor, therefore is The Gift a very practical book. It describes a problem - the disconnect between the practice of art and common forms of earning a living - but it refrains from exploring a resolution." Do not read this book if you are looking for thoughts or advice on livning with your gift in the real world. Do read if you're interested in the anthropological aspects of gift communities.
crispymerola's review against another edition
3.0
I'm a bit conflicted on this one. The ideas in here are fascinating, but often explored poorly.
What is a gift? What makes a gift different than an exchange in the market? What sort of societies utilize gift economies? What can we learn about the creative life with this information?
These are well-posed questions by Hyde, and they do get answered, in meandering flowery passages which hop from ethnography to world history to fairy tales. The book is structured into two halves - in the first, Hyde fully explores and defines the gift and all of the questions surrounding it. In the second, Hyde uses the lives and works of Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound to explore some of the ideas in action. As someone who isn't closely familiar with either author, I felt I was missing a key component with these passages. The first half of the book had some striking conceptual images that I won't soon forget, but I can't say the same for the second.
Another thing to make peace with - this is a book of theory. There's little in the way of advice for the artist looking to resolve the tension between the gift economy and the market economy. Perhaps my expectations were misguided, but I spent much of the book waiting for some semblance of practicality - how can these concepts be utilized to enhance my creative performance?
To this end, there are a few notable points - for example, the free and circular nature of the gift economy is a great image for the artist suffering from writer's block. Much like how gifts exchanged freely are not counted or analyzed through an economic lens, the artist must not get caught up in overanalyzing and critiquing their work, lest they block up the circular flow of their creative energy (creation begets creation begets creation).
Also, perhaps a concept as mysterious as creativity shouldn't be tackled in a blunt way, like I'm suggesting. Maybe it's for the best that The Gift is mostly theory. Either way, it's a dry read at points.
What is a gift? What makes a gift different than an exchange in the market? What sort of societies utilize gift economies? What can we learn about the creative life with this information?
These are well-posed questions by Hyde, and they do get answered, in meandering flowery passages which hop from ethnography to world history to fairy tales. The book is structured into two halves - in the first, Hyde fully explores and defines the gift and all of the questions surrounding it. In the second, Hyde uses the lives and works of Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound to explore some of the ideas in action. As someone who isn't closely familiar with either author, I felt I was missing a key component with these passages. The first half of the book had some striking conceptual images that I won't soon forget, but I can't say the same for the second.
Another thing to make peace with - this is a book of theory. There's little in the way of advice for the artist looking to resolve the tension between the gift economy and the market economy. Perhaps my expectations were misguided, but I spent much of the book waiting for some semblance of practicality - how can these concepts be utilized to enhance my creative performance?
To this end, there are a few notable points - for example, the free and circular nature of the gift economy is a great image for the artist suffering from writer's block. Much like how gifts exchanged freely are not counted or analyzed through an economic lens, the artist must not get caught up in overanalyzing and critiquing their work, lest they block up the circular flow of their creative energy (creation begets creation begets creation).
Also, perhaps a concept as mysterious as creativity shouldn't be tackled in a blunt way, like I'm suggesting. Maybe it's for the best that The Gift is mostly theory. Either way, it's a dry read at points.