gift-economics

Gift Economics Quote of the Day

"I can’t shake fantasizing about attention that has no price, that can’t be bought or sold, but is given freely: a gift. I buy and read books because I want to give the gift of my attention to the attention economy I’m (as a writer) a part of. I’m inspired by Lewis Hyde in The Gift, who says that what distinguishes commodities is that they’re used up, but what distinguishes gifts is that they circulate — the gift is never trapped, consumed, used up, contained or confined. That seems like the best basis for cultural production to thrive."

~ Michael Erard
From "A Short Manifesto on the Future of Attention"

Word-Slinger-in-Chief + Senior Editor /slowcore-hq + /gift-economics | GenX eldergoth | dark ambient music nerd | contemplative animist 🏳‍🌈

Ethereum

I’ve just started reading The Gift, days back, and it’s phenomenal. Life changing.

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Polymyth, autodidact. 🗿 • /antimeme.

enuf

I still haven't read Trickster Makes This World, but I like folklore. Maybe this is my cue to finally put it on my wish list. 

Hyde has some great essays on his website, too, in case you haven't read those.

I haven't read all of them yet, but of the ones I've read so far, I think "Created Commons" is my fav. He talks about the material conditions and surrounding communities that made it possible for writers like Thoreau and Emerson to produce great work.

https://lewishyde.com/essays/

Can’t recall the exact moment i decided to get it, but i loved Trickster Makes this World and the way Hyde wrote that, using so much folklore and all that to give historical context on a lot of the ideas he presents..

I think because of Trickster, some recommendation algo might’ve shown me The Gift, but when i saw it was from Hyde, I knew I had to read it.

He has a way of putting a lot of the abstract concepts or notions in my mind to these stories and words and it’s been so refreshing to see someone doing that.

Excellent! It's about time for me to re-read it. 

I remember stumbling upon it for the first time in a university library in the early 2000s, and wishing I'd known about gift economics earlier in life.

I'm curious: what made you decide to pick it up?