Summary
Raphael Patai, whose Golden River to Golden Road passage Said quotes and anatomizes in Orientalism’s Chapter Three, IV as an image of the radically power-based relationship between the Orientalist as source of knowledge and the Oriental as inert subject matter, and whose later The Arab Mind Said names as outstripping even his previous work (Orientalism (1978), PDF p.317-318 / printed p.308-309).
Details
- Patai, as quoted: in order to evaluate what Middle Eastern culture will willingly accept from the West and to gauge the effects of newly introduced traits, a fuller picture of its traditional culture and a deeper insight into its psychology must be acquired; the task is taxing, but the prize, “harmony between the West and a neighboring world area of crucial importance, is well worth it” (Orientalism (1978), PDF p.317-318 / printed p.308-309).
- Said’s reading: the passage’s metaphorical figures come from commercial, horticultural, religious, veterinary and historical activities, yet in each case the relation between the Middle East and the West is really defined as sexual — the Middle East resistant as a virgin, the male scholar winning the prize by penetrating through the Gordian knot, “harmony” the result of conquest, not the coexistence of equals; study, understanding, knowledge and evaluation directed to “harmony” are instruments of conquest (Orientalism (1978), PDF p.318 / printed p.309).
- His verbal operations aim at compression and reduction: describing the Middle East as a “culture area”, his work eradicates the plurality or differences among the Arabs in the interest of one difference setting Arabs off from everyone else, so that as a subject matter they can be controlled more readily (Orientalism (1978), PDF p.318 / printed p.309).
- His work is also Said’s typical example of contemporary Orientalist scholarship’s attention to the Arab family, its male-dominated structure and all-pervasive influence (Orientalism (1978), PDF p.320 / printed p.311).