Reivew: The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the the Modern World by Louis Hyde

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Book Review
There are few books that have explored the aspect of talents and how they interact with the existing economic system “The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the modern world” by Louis Hyde does a great job in exploring how these different areas interrelate. With the use of real-life examples, the book explores various artists, their approach towards their gifts, the interaction of their work with the economy and how it affected their art. This essay will explore some of the aspects of gifts or talents as discussed in Hyde’s book and how they pertain in our day to day lives.
As the book explores about how the gift interacts with the economic market as opposed to other commodities, it is, therefore, significant to establish the difference between a gift and a commodity. The term gift is used by Hyde to refer to both immaterial and material inspirations and talents such as the gift of poetry, music, and academics. According to Hyde, a gift comes from deep within one’s soul. On the other hand, a commodity is that which a person gives in exchange for monetary compensation. One of the differences between a gift and a commodity that Hyde gives is that when a commodity is hoarded, it leads to an increase in wealth while for a gift, hoarding lead to a decrease in wealth (Hyde, 25). Another difference is that commodities are usually exchanged through logical commerce that relies on the principle of differentiation and reason while gifts are usually exchanged through erotic commerce which is based on involvement, attraction and union.

The above-outlined differences are applicable even in real life situations. Take, for instance, a young musician who is starting his career. As his career starts, he may have to do a lot of free performances while developing his career. If the musician were to hold off these performances, then there is a high likelihood that his career will not grow since by hoarding his gift, he lacks practice, and there would be no improvement in his art. On the other hand, as he performs during the initial stages of his career, the musician is driven by the passion of his art, and despite doing it for free, he still enjoys it since his gift is not influenced only by the promise of monetary compensation but rather an inspiration from deep within. This confirms that exchange of gifts is through erotic commerce that is based on the union, involvement and attraction to one’s art. If the artist’s motivation is based on income only, then it would destroy his art which also shows that logical commerce is not suitable for exchange of art (Hyde, 20).
Towards the end of the book, Hyde reconciles the exchange of gifts and commodities by analyzing certain situations that show that gifts should be paid for but not like commodities. Establishing that he agrees that gifts should also earn income eases the tension of his line of thought that may seem to have been suggesting a free exchange. However, he also points out that for a gift, one cannot quantify its value at the beginning since it involves inner transformation before its value can be established. He further says that exchanging the gift through logical commerce fails to recognize a gift as an agent of transformation thus the true value of the gift is not captured. A good example of this can be seen in spiritual systems and various forms of therapy whose value can only be obtained after the inner transformation has taken place unlike the beginning of the exchange. Hyde also recognizes the scientific community where value cannot be created or established without sharing with others first since the new knowledge under development must first be fitted in with the existing scientific data. This is because the past feeds the present and vice versa. A special market for art will ensure that critical work is passed down to future generations just as a special post was created for Isaac Newton that led to the creation of the modern scientific community (Hyde, 387). Therefore, the scientific market functions like the suggested gift market. This example shows that the proposed gift market that shares first before the valuation can be applicable in real life.
Work cited
Hyde, L. The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. Vintage Books, Random House, Inc. New York, 2007. Pdf