Blast caught at last, hinc lucem et pocula sacra, I reckon I'd always seen
gifting as in some way denuding oneself. The gift foregrounds the social
interplay, as one either inflicts oneself upon another (a kind of apology for
invading the body-space) or an abjection. But the gift in this sense always
seems to invite menace. Its like when torturers display their products as a
way of eluding the process, but if the victim is not subjugated, then the
torturer inflicts with the process. So the gift is the instrument whilst the
process is the outcome. Performance in this way becomes the assault, and the
text the weapon. I quite like a bit of menace in the performance though, it
reminds one of one's mortality and the fickleness of being. No xmas holidays
for me as a rampant atheist, but I like to menace those unfortunates with
crocheted loo roll holders and plastic specula. Give me Quality Street any
day, fat is an atheist issue.
cris cheek wrote:
> Hi Chris,
>
> love the shift from gift to gitt through your typo. no more xmas holidays
> with Steptoe in France for you then. Don't you ever buy presents for
> yourself?
>
> Seriously, of course there are many ways in which gifts are worrying
> things. Gifts given to induce gifts to be given (power and exchange and
> reification of status - "Diamonds Are Forever"). There are scales of
> social transaction in play. Some things are given to hold and to bind, to
> cast a charm or to wind a lover closer to one's sphere and so forth. Poems
> are and have for all time been such 'things'. But the negative does not
> always need to be the case, although it is that which is often defining of
> and defined by the case. Come in Ludwig, the gang's all here.
>
> My moth-er told me, if I was good'dy that she would buy me, a rub-ber
> dol-ly, and to never take sweets from strangers, in particular from strange
> men.
>
> love and love
> cris
--
All the best
Chris
=====================================================================
Chris Emery
http://www.geocities.com/Soho/Square/1664
Christopher Hamilton-Emery
http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|