Sunday, January 29, 2006
Philip Hensher reviews Robert Irwin's, For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies -- What should not be known:
This elegantly argued, amusing and acute book has been put together, in the end, for a single overdue purpose: to piss all over Edward W. Said’s ludicrous 1978 polemical work, Orientalism. It may look, for most of the journey, like a scrupulous history of the academic study of Arabic cultures, and the steady growth in understanding, as well as some deft character sketches of the necessarily rather eccentric figures in the field. Don’t be misled: Robert Irwin has Said perpetually in his sights...
[Emphasis mine. Via Martin Kramer]
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I actually tried to read one of Said's books. I can't remember the title but it had claimed that Jerusalem was never in it's history a Jewish city. I think I read about 10 pages. It's nice to see that someone is taken on the task of disproving Said's gross and error prone works.
How do you get to be the most famous Palestinian intellectual? Write a book-length victim whine. Sadly revealing.