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The Gift: How The Creative Spirit Transforms The WorldEditions
ReviewWith its portentous subtitle, this book looks as if it might be one of those slightly dippy volumes that make feckless people feel better about themselves when religion no longer does the trick. But there is a forceful declaration on the front from Margaret Atwood: ‘A masterpiece.’ Resounding praise from such luminaries as Zadie Smith and Geoff Dyer also suggests that this book, first published in the USA in 1979 and now appearing in the UK for the first time, should be taken seriously. What is it? In the first part, Hyde offers a detailed analysis of the distinction between gifts and commodities. Confrontations between developed societies and tribal communities are revealed often to be based on fundamental differences about whether human commerce should be ordered as a gift economy or one of commodity exchange. Gradually, as the West developed, the nature of social bonds and obligations shifted as people learned to trade successfully with foreign communities. But there was an uneasy sense that something important was being lost from its transactions, which may be observed lingering in fairy tales where, instead of being passed on, objects given as gifts are used for individual gain. Hyde also traces the shift through a fascinating study of usury. In pre-Christian times, it was a function of trading between isolated communities, which only came under attack with the Christian teaching that a community should be defined by faith rather than tribe. In its controversial history can be seen the ebb and flow of attitudes towards gift and commodity. In our own age, it is entrenched in marketing that appears to offer things as gifts: ‘the distinction between the commodity mode and the gift mode [is blurred] so that the former may profit by the energy of the latter.’ The point of Hyde’s distinction is to try to understand something about art. What do we mean by someone having a gift? Is the artist producing a gift or a commodity? Do we read, listen or look at a work as if it were a gift or commodity? And if there is an answer to this, what does it imply? To illuminate these questions, he proceeds with detailed discussions of Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound. His intention is not to demonstrate that they were good or bad as poets or people, but that their work reveals in extreme form some elements that obtain through all artistic endeavour and appreciation. It is intrinsic to our understanding of art, Hyde argues, that our answers to these questions will have to do with gifts. Such questions are worth asking, and Hyde’s patient, shrewd investigation will surely be very fascinating to anyone interested in – however portentous it sounds – ‘how the creative spirit transforms the world.’ - review by Johnny de Falbe |
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