Comments for Not49

Comment on Starting “Orientalism” – Edward Said by abrecan

abrecan — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:38:17 +0000

I will definately look out for them on my next trip to the library, thank you!

Comment on Starting “Orientalism” – Edward Said by Julaybib Ayoub

Julaybib Ayoub — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:19:48 +0000

See also: ‘Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid’, by Daniel Martin Varisco. Varisco is a leading US anthropologist and, if I remember correctly president of the American Anthroplogist Association’s Middle East chapter. I’ve not read this, but I have read his ‘Islam Obscured’, and if that is any guide, this latest title will surely prove an entertaining and erudite read. Expect Said to get a kicking, though!

Another critique of Said (which rightly points out that Said’s ideas were ripped off from other academic writing in less prominent academic fields), but one which then relocates the concept of Orientalism from literary theory to organic cultural studies (where it really belongs, IMHO) is Ziauddin Sardar’s ‘Orientalism’. And unlike Said, as any good organic cultural studies book should be, Sardar’s writing is actually a fairly easy to read. Not as flashy a dresser, though!

Ramadan Mubarak!

Comment on Gravity’s Rainbow by abrecan

abrecan — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:09:30 +0000

Hi Leems! Thanks for commenting on my ramble

I definately agree with you about the criticism being aimed at readers who have had certain expectations shaped by publishing industry and such like.

For me I experience GR on such polar levels. On the one hand it infuriates the hell out of me, and that makes me even angrier because then I know the novel has succeeded in identifying that very same type of reader in me. I don’t necessarily want to be the reader who expects coherence and a sense of order.

Alternatively, when you read it and start to tune in to the humour and wit of it, it’s really uplifting in a way that makes you want to open a window and share the joke with a stranger.

We are studying this alongside Melville’s Moby Dick next year but I really wanted to get a head start. It’s not something you can start the night, or even weekend, before class so I will definately try your method of reading it.

Comment on Gravity’s Rainbow by leems

leems — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:18:47 +0000

Hey Not,
Firstly, thanks for the quote.
I didn’t quite mean that anyone was “meant” to love anything about Pynchon. Gravity’s Rainbow was put out there for people to make whatever sense they can (can manage to, can bear to, etc.) out of it. This is just the sense that I’m making, what I love about it: I didn’t feel like I understood his “point” until I stopped searching for one.
I also didn’t so much feel like the “fuck you” is aimed at life, but more the reader whose expectations are shaped by a publishing industry that, on the whole, produces titillating yet inoffensive, unchallenging work with neat little beginnings, middles, ends. (For example – You can’t have one of the main characters from the beginning disappear for 500 pages with no explanation and then just drop him into the action again whenever you feel like it! But, actually, you can.)
Also, don’t give up on it! Don’t know if this’ll help you, but after the first 200 or so pages I actually took to reading it section by section, going over each section twice before moving on.
Oh and secondly, thanks for launching one of the few truly intelligent, practical discussions of the book I’ve found so far.
- J