nothing for me to do ... trying to read Said's ORIENTALISM because, well, we were assigned the introduction to it in a graduate class (to see how he formulates his argument -- the particulars of Orientalism weren't important) and last month I had the genius idea of reading the whole damn thing. In my free time.
I'm on page 105. I don't think I like Said. I don't think I like his argument -- I see his argument, but I also see his bias.
But then again, I don't know much about Orientalism or Colonialist or post-Colonialist theory ...
His arguments hold water, and what do I, a white suburbanite, know about the Levant? Right? It angers me, but I try to keep an open mind, knowing that this is my heritage -- the heritage of the West.
I was going to read IMPERIALISM, but I thought I should read ORIENTALISM first as, well, IMPERIALISM is the "sequal" (and another Said introduction that we read for the argumentation, not the argument) and why start at part 2, right?
Ugh.
Though, I think next I'm going to read my books of Muslim diaries from the Crusade era -- just because I'm a Geek and a glutton for torture.
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