Status Updates From Orientalism: Western Concep...

"Europe's effort therefore was to maintain itselt as what Valéry called 'une machine puissante,' absorbing what it could from outside Europe, converting everything to its use, intellectually and materially, keeping the Orient selectively organized (or disorganized)."

‘in his [renan’s] life, however, he determined to be as christian as he once was, only now without christianity and with what he called “la science laique”.’ 😭😭😭😭 i actually can’t with this book i want to cry and laugh but i want to finish it already

"my principal operating assumptions were—and continue to be—that fields of learning, as much as the works of even the most eccentric artist, are constrained and acted upon by society, by cultural traditions, by worldly circumstance, and by stabilizing influences like schools, libraries, and governments..."