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xenia

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«Now you and the author are in the same little boat cast away from the safety of finished things, and the way out is through the work itself. It belongs to each equally for that brief time, and as both of you focus on it sitting there in front of you, the "other" as critic -- the judging stranger -- is only in the periphery, comments about the piece are about the piece and not about either of you. This is the magic of the gift.» -- Writers Workshops & the Work of Making Things, p. 35

«Gifts are given without the expectation of direct gifts in return. By making your work a gift, you invite the reader into the circle of something akin to a family, and you can expect the spirit of xenia -- "a bond of solidarity manifesting itself in an exchange of goods and services" -- to take over interactions. A gift has both economic and spiritual content. It is personal. In giving a gift, the giver's goal is to become as empty as possible.»

Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek)

Comments

  1. aridedOctober 3, 2016 at 12:40 PM

    Although xenia concerns gifts for strangers, we saw in the #monthsary paper (and Kula exchange discussions) that it's also practised amongst people who know each other; Barthes gives a theoretical interpretation of communication as exchange. One potentially interesting reference in connection w/ that sort of thing: "The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity and Social Networks in a Chinese Village" by Yunxiang Yan.

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