The sidekick has been kicked off postrantrant

I’m still not feeling up to writing much, but this is an explanation of The Gift as simplified by John Caputo:

“What, then, is a gift? Why does Derrida associate it with justice? And what is so “aporetic” about a gift?
To put it very simply: suppose that A gives B to C. What could be more simple than that? If A gives B to C, then C is grateful to A and owes A a debt of gratitude, with the result that C, instead of being given something, is now in debt. On the other hand, A is more or less consciously and explicitly pleased with herself for generosity. This is all the more true if C is ungrateful and refuses to say “thank you,” or if A has remained an anonymous benefactor, so that C does not know whom to thank. For then A may congratulate herself for an even higher generosity which is so unselfish that it does not even require acknowledgment. This is no less true if everything happens unconsciously, for one may certainly contract unconscious debts or unconsciously congratulate oneself for one’s being very wonderful and generous. Thus, the aporetic result of A’s giving B to C is that A, instead of giving something, has received and C, instead of receiving something, is now in debt. The result, in short, is that as soon as a gift is given it begins to annul itself, or that the conditions which make the gift possible also make it impossible.”

-Derrida, Jacques, and John Caputo. Deconstruction in a Nutshell. New York: Fordham University Press, 1997. pg. 141, as copied from http://ddthesis.wordpress.com/category/deconstruction/

This may not seem particularly simplified! My musings on this concept will follow soon.