On Gibran (Jubran Khalil Jubran as we call him in Arabic)

""He was looked down upon as, frankly, a 'bubblehead' by Western academics, because he appealed to the masses. I think he has been misunderstood in the West. He is certainly not a bubblehead, in fact his writings in Arabic are in a very sophisticated style.  "There is no doubt he deserves a place in the Western canon. It is strange to teach English literature and ignore a literary phenomenon."  I disagree with Juan's assessment here.  I happen to know a lot about Gibran and met his friend and biographer, the fellow writer Mikha'il Nu`aymah at age 12.  From age 8 to age 13, I was obsessed with Gibran.  Later, I got to know that his writing has little substance and few insights and certainly no depth.  His style was original, not sophisticated per se.  He advocated reforms but his ideas were general romantic ideas that one saw in French literary writings about freedom.  He was innovative in the use of Arabic, but even in Arabic his body of work is not "adab" (belle lettres) as Al-Jahiz is adab, for example.