[-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 53, Issue 6

[Cinzia Cremona]

>As for reciprocity, for Derrida, there is a fundamental dissymetry between
myself and the Other, as well as among myself and the "other >others" with
whom I share social concourse: the gift I am expected to hand over to the
deity is one which will not be reciprocated, but >refused, causing me to be
remunerated in a posthumous order where spirirual riches accumulate, but
only if I forget.  With DNA in the place >of the Other, does this dissymetry
remain, or is the playng field leveled?

>For Derrida, to give is to forget that one has given: but can we forget our
investments?

I am glad I haven't missed this latest discussion, although it is hard to
find the time to follow the conversation as it deserves.

In relation to the passage above, I was thinking about Derrida's *
contretemps* - when I give, I do not forget my gift, but I do not know when
I will see what the return might be ... or from what direction it might
come. How about reading dissymetry and lack of reciprocity as a possible
wider form of circulation of capital, and of a larger variety of forms of
capital? The gifts I receive might not be comparable to the gifts I have
given in terms of a certain value system, but I might still depend on them,
or they might be priceless from a different perspective. Also, I find it
quite plausible to expect gifts from those I have not given to, and have no
intention or capacity to give to.

-- 
Cinzia

Visions in the Nunnery
22 to 31 May 2009
openvisions.org
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