Monday, November 08, 2010

Vulgar Orientalism

Of course, I have always believed that there is a difference between serious, scholarly Orientalism (works by the likes of Rodinson, Massignon, Hitti, Goldziher, Gibb, etc--politics and methodology aside) and vulgar Orientalism (represented by the likes of Patai or Kedourie or most in Israeli Orientalism).  Here, a columnist in the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid Bin Sultan, Al-Hayat, (Hazim Saghiyyah), just stumbled upon the vulgar Orientalist trashy distinction between "guilt societies" and "shame societies" and attributes the "discovery" to a British Indian writer.  There is nothing worse than a journalist who is not satisfied being a journalist wants to pose as a scholar: this is like a standup comedian who wants to be taken seriously as an actor.