I really miss Edward Said. I've been re-reading Orientalism the past couple of days, and I'm reminded of the vacuum he left behind...Especially in these awful times, when we need him most.
I don't believe in hero worship, and there were times I got impatient with how people were making Said into some oriental knight in shining armor. That's part of the reason I never could finish Ahdaf Souif's syrupy romance The Map of Love, the author's very long love letter to Said.
But I do miss his intellect, his voice, and his moral clarity.
Especially now.
7 comments:
I miss him too ... may god rest his soul!
I have to teach that novel this week. Wail Hassan wrote a very good essay about it at the PMLA. You're right it's a long love letter to E. Said, and it feels artificial at times but it has some moments of excitement and intellection that are worth looking at.
ngf,
what's the f for?
yes, I read Wail's essay. It's good. But Wail too is in love with Edward Said. In fact, he told me so himself in response to my criticism of Souif : )
It's a love fest ya3ni.
The other thing I didn't like about the novel is the love story between Anna and Shereef? so syrupy sweet. How about some tension, some drama, some darkness? some conflict? some development? The only time they get in a tiff is when she goes to the bank to get money. It was kind of boring. I just feel Ahdaf was too politicaly correct. I preferred her first novel In the Eye of the Sun. Speaking of tension!!
well, the first time I taught it worked well with undergrads when it comes to explaining orientalism, relations between knowledge and power, creation of Israel etc. So, it might be a badly woven story, but from a pedagogical perspective it's a good book, and students loved it.
np, it's just "ng"--it must have been a typo, letters are so small on this laptop, and you can always press two with a simple touch.
you're making your undergrads read a 500 page novel? And you're still alive?
you might be surprised but they love it, and plus I assign it always right after recess week or when students have enough time to read it. Who is going to read these long novels anyway? Well, Ala alaswany's new novel for instance is 500 pages, and his earlier one was almost the same length. I like reading long novels since my Proust and Joyce days, not the Victorian ones though...Well, you might wanna try it with your students...
As to E Said, well, we all have a smack of Said in us, and that's why perhaps we all ineluctably have to love Said...It will be nigh to impossible to see another voice like his emerging now or the near future, so missing him is even more devastating because of that...
ng,
I love reading long novels too. It's my students who hate it!
Yes, it will be hard to fill his shoes.
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