Status Updates From Orientalismo

The chapter about how travellers perceived Orient seemed one of the most interesting ones to me in a whole book. Even sex with Oriental people had its own image . The author also draws the distinction between British and French Orientalism .

"the life of an arab palestinian in the west, particularly in america, is disheartening. there exists here an almost unanimous consent that politically he does not exist, and when it is allowed that he does, it is either as a nuisance or as an oriental."

and: "too often literature and culture are presumed to be politically, even historically innocent"

Lord Cromer (a colonial official for Britain first in India then Egypt) framed "cosmopolitanism" (an Egypt that includes Britain and British occupation as part of it's identity) against "narrow nationalism, which will only embrace native Egyptians" (p 37)

Interesting use of cosmopolitanism