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David Graeber quote ✍️

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The basic principle of structural analysis, I was explaining, is that the terms of a symbolic system do not stand in isolation — they are not to be thought of in terms of what they 'stand for,' but are defined by their relations to each other. One has to first define the field, and then look for elements in that field that are systematic inversions of each other. Take vampires. First you place them: vampires are stock figures in American horror movies. American horror movies constitute a kind of cosmology, a universe unto themselves. Then you ask: what, within this cosmos, is the opposite of a vampire? The answer is obvious. The opposite of a vampire is a werewolf. On one level they are the same: they are both monsters that can bite you and, biting you, turn you, too, into one of their own kind. In most other ways each is an exact inversion of the other. Vampires are rich. They are typically aristocrats. Werewolves are always poor. Vampires are fixed in space: they have castles or crypts that they have to retreat to during the daytime; werewolves are usually homeless derelicts, travelers, or otherwise on the run. Vampires control other creatures (bats, wolves, humans that they hypnotize or render thralls). Werewolves can't control themselves. Yet — and this is really the clincher in this case — each can be destroyed only by its own negation: vampires, by a stake, a simple sharpened stick that peasants use to construct fences; werewolves, by a silver bullet, something literally made from money.
David Graeber The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stup… opposites poor rich vampires werewolves

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Similar Crossword Answers

Answer Clues
POOR 473 clues
RICH 346 clues
TYRANNY 42 clues
PHILOSOPHY 31 clues
PSYCHOLOGY 25 clues
OPPOSITES 20 clues
TUTELAGE 17 clues
VAMPIRES 16 clues
DEMOCRACY 11 clues
WEREWOLVES 8 clues

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  1. David Ben-__ 72.73%
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  8. David Frye, e.g. 66.67%
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  10. David's father 66.67%
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  12. David's partner 64.29%
  13. David or scarum 64.29%
  14. DAVID, father of 64.29%
  15. David ____ Mackenzie 64.29%
  16. DAVID ___ STIERS 64.00%
  17. David ___-Gurion 64.00%
  18. David's aide. 64.00%
  19. David, e.g. 63.64%
  20. "David and ___" 63.64%
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Unscramble DAVID5-letter words that start with D5-letter words that end in D5-letter words containing AV5-letter words containing ID5-letter words with D and A
Poet’s word, with inverted comma, for the end of the day
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E
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E
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N
Hint 1 meaning
The old plural of Eye.
Hint 2 anagram
NEE
Hint 3 another clue
AND STILL ___
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