Orientalism :: essays papers

channelizealismTwo great themes dominate his remarks here and in what allow followKnowledge and power, the Baconian theme. As Blafour justifies thenecessity for British occupation of Egypt, supremacy in his mind isassociated with our knowledge of Egypt and non principally withmilitary or economic power.He describes the desire for knowledge about the orient as being spawnedfrom the desire to colonialise effectively not to decipher the complex reputation of a society which is inherently different, thus bound to dothings a little differently. By comprehending the Orient, the Westjustified a position of ownership. The Orient became the subject, theseen, the observed, the studied Orientalist philosophers were theapprentices, the overseers, the observers. The Orient was quiescentthe West was dynamic.This is a rather dispossessed position both for the West and theOrient. The students used their position of perceived thoughtto further compel Oriental people into subservience whilesi multaneously justifying their actions. They protect theirconscience by convincing themselves that the Orient was incapable ofrunning itself, thus their land must be administered for them.It dose not occur to Balfour to let the Egyptian speak for himself,since presumably e genuinely Egyptian who would speak out is more than likely to bethe agitator who wishes to raise difficultiesSaid makes some vivid, emotional and striking points however, he seemsto be lacking of a little objectivity. The cosmopolitan tone of his bookOrientalism depicts western Orientalists as persistently reinventingthe near and set East in self-serving, eurocentric terms as seen by means of westbound eyes, the Orient emerges as a passive, backwardworld, monolithic in reputation and exotic in its alienism, a realm ideallycreated to sustain the Wests conceive of of supremacy. Said brutallycharges Western scholars for perpetuating the notion that the Orientshould not be taken seriously besides rather be se en as a subject ofstudy.It is in this line that Said builds his argument. Totally oblivious tothe point that the sheer passion in his discourse may be equated to secernment by readers. He makes m either hard hitting and vivid points,but the repetitive hammering on the same point posses the ability to change a great piece of work into an opus which skates around adiluted form of reverse racism. As progress is made throughOrientalism several instances are depicted which provoke negativeattitudes from the readerThe European is a close reasoner his statements of fact are devoid ofany ambiguity he is a natural logician, albeit he may not have studiedlogic he is by nature very sceptical and requires proof before he canaccept any proposition.