Jesus, I’m out of the loop. Anyway, I was strolling though Solomonia when I learned that Edward Said passed away last week. Frankly, I disagreed with much of what Said said - and even more with what he represented - but he was a hell of a scholar who challenged us to think. Said’s Orientalism provoked in me more questions than any other work I have read, and for that, I am truly thankful.
The man will be truly missed.
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WTF!?! I hadn’t heard about this either. Maybe it’s because many of his convoluted theories came tumbling down with the WTC. Still, he was an influential scholar…you’d think there’d be a bit more news coverage.
(Does the rule of three apply to deaths among leftist intellectuals, too? If so, Chomsky, Zinn, and Sontag better take cover.)
Gentlemen,
May I suggest that you put Winds of Change or Little Green Footballs on your daily list.
Oh, yeah. Re: Said. Is lying about yourself and your origins for political effect one of the requirements of scholarship?
As to Orientalism: what the West taught about the East must have been fairly close to the truth because the West has mastered the East. As you well know military power is never enough.
The real problem of East/West relationships is that the East in fact practices Occidentalism. A distorted view of the West.
How could it be otherwise? The West has passed out of tribalism to nationalism. The East is not very far along in this path. Which is why the East is ignorant of the West.
Said’s main result in the war of ideas was to confuse the issues. And make certain topics of discussion off limits - Western “Orientalism” was the #1 excuse for not looking at Islamic fascism before 9/11. I suppose if you applaud the 9/11 attacks (which I know you don’t) Said was OK. If you don’t then you must recognize that 9/11 was in part a result of his book “Orientalism”.
Some scholar.
Well spoken, M. Simon.
Not a whole lot to argue with, Mr. Simon. As I mentioned in my post, I don’t agree with much of what Said argued, although much of his criticism of how the West has viewed the “Orient” is, in my opinion, still valid. I find it difficult to argue that the West did not, for centuries, create an image of an Eastern “other” that bore very little resemblance to what the “East” really was. As you point out, however, the East has for centuries done the same thing with the “West” - both at times of relative strength and relative weakness. I’ve read Arab accounts of medival Europe, and to say the least, they are neither flattering nor sensitive to local conditions, and even now - both in the Middle East and the Far East - societies have created various images of an Occidental “other” in order to help shape definitions of self (among other reasons). And just as Said criticises just about every Western writer who wrote about “the East” (including Burton, for Christ’s sake!) for misrepresenting that about which they were writing, so do a great many “Eastern” writers who write upon the West. I remember a Korean professor of mine who was discussing James Clavel’s “Shogun” (a book I’m sure gave Said fits - assuming he cared about that other “East” further along the Silk Road) over lunch one day, and he lamented that few Korean writers could display such a deep understanding of the West. And if I needed more proof, just listen to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad when he’s having a bad day.
That being said, I still think Said’s loss is tragic - at least he raised issues that got us thinking. And he provided a great many of us with terrific fisk material.
Hi
I have also written in Siad’s memory. WOuld u mind visiting my blog and leaving ur comments?
http://oddamongbrains.blogsky.com