orientalism

academia is, as we expected, a battle ground of opinions and a bonfire of the vanities. and everyone is related.
i was in the audience of a lecture given by robert irwin today. he is one of the many and one of the major critics of edward said and his book, orientalism. irwin's book, for lust of knowing, settles scores with said's many errors; his denouncing leading orientalists for having an imperialist/racist/zionist agenda when really they had not, while at the same time ignoring other scholars if they did not fit said's agenda.
mamma mia! the outrage! considering that orientalism was written in 1978, and has managed to stay on the academic bestseller list eversince, one can only say chapeau to mr... sorry, professor said, who as a pupil in cairo, was beaten up by his school prefect who was to become omar sharif the hollywood star.
robert irwin, on the other hand, wrote his phd thesis at soas supervised by bernard lewis, declared zionist, favourite *middle east expert* of the neocons, and creator of the phrase *clash of civilisations* for the current conflicts between islamist groups and western institutions.
one big happy family! now waiting for a backlash said support book to be published very soon.

ps: my essay on leila khaled and samiha khalil, gender stereotypes and political nationalist violence got 66 points. now i'm the teacher's pet.