Tag: Gift

• July 25, 2014

  Making room for, and sense of, largesse

  In his otherwise scathing New York Review of Books review of Jean Starobinski’s Largesse, Ernst Gombrich notes at the outset that the term refers not just to gift giving of any sort but, ‘in a more technical context, [to] the ceremonial scattering of gifts expected from a king or prince on festive occasions.’ Largesse, Starobinski asserts, is an…
• June 19, 2012

  Gift economy: A conversation with Jackie Bergman

  A 14 minute conversation with Jackie Bergman from a week ago. In the Conservatory Garden of Central Park, he and I talk about the nature of gift economy. Enjoy. *
• February 29, 2012

  ‘Therefore, I tried the hammer…’: On how not to receive a gift

  The impetus for the following letter was a guffaw. Last week I ordered a copy of Hubert Dreyfus’s Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time and, by mistake, had had it shipped to my conversation partner’s residence.  Here: a non-gift for you! Thanks! In his turn, he had mailed the book to me. On Monday,…
• January 30, 2012

  Meow

  The following is an excerpt from an email exchange that took place between one conversation partner–I guess I’ve renamed her “S.”–and me from this past weekend. I pick up the thread about education in Tuesday’s post. Till then, A. — Dear S., There’s a rock on my desk. (A fine opening line!). It’s black. Away…
• January 23, 2012

  At home with Joan

  If it’s before 9 a.m. and the doorbell rings, I hurry down the stairs to get it. If it’s after 9, then I assume Joan is up and around, sitting in the kitchen, reading the New York Times as the light comes in through the front window. Upstairs in my treetop home, I loiter with my…