Early on in "The Gift of Death", Derrida says
(based on Potocka)
"..to the gift of death that puts me into
relation with the transcendence of the other,
with God as selfless goodness.."
and goes on to talk about how the
paradox between responsibility and faith
(this orgiastic desire for union with the
secret sacred, which erases your responsibility)
is involved. "The Gift of Death" seems a little
awkward. Maybe "the promised gifts of a
religious death" is closer, or "the packaging
of death as a gift".
But what about the Gift in "Given Time"?
I only have what looks like a nice article:
www.iep.utm.edu/derrida/
(sec 7a)
It looks like any return for the gift, even
saying 'thank you', drives a give-take cycle that
nulls out the giving. I would differ about that:
I think saying 'thank you' is just a token that
acknowledges you are taking without giving...
ie, a confirmation of the gifting. Derrida seems to
crank up the volume on some symbolic things to equal
other things they are specifically supposed to
be less than (or a translation into another system)..
Your 'will never be just one example' almost seems like
a weird translational hiccup. In English, it has no
coherent meaning. It almost seems like
"will always be one example of many", but not quite.
Given that it's grammatically semi-incoherent already,
I wouldn't give it much weight unless you can get the
French and a fluent bilingual to explain.
Having been here for a few years, I think it's worth
warning you that Derrida is outside the normal range here,
so you may not find an expert. I'm just doing what I can as
another camera angle.
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