So I’ve been reading The Gift by Lewis Hyde which was reviewed in the Times a couple of months ago, and was impossible to get at any bookstore in the city for weeks. It’s got lots of nice stuff about how art is a gift and blah blah blah, which is great if you are me, but sucks if you’re Jeff Koons or Richard Prince (who’s getting sued by the way for his latest show at Gagosian).  Here’s a quote that pretty much gets at the crux of the book so far.

It is the assumption of this book that a work of art is a gift, not a commodity. Or, to state the modern case with more precision, that works of art exist simultaneously in tow “economies,” a market economy and a gift economy. Only one of these is essential, however: a work of art can survive without the market, but where there is no gift there is no art.

Anyway, this interview with Harlan Ellison was posted over at C-Monster and provided a nice and humorous contrast for a Friday afternoon.