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A review by philipkenner
The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World by Lewis Hyde
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.