Orient

Just outline the thesis of Orientalism as laid out by Edward Said then.

Said says that Orientalism is a way of thinking that the Occident or the West has about the Orient or the East.

And that this way of thinking was cultural, but it was also political.

It was military.

It was about power.

He explains how the Orient is a construction for the Occident.

It is a fantasy.

that there are true Orientals, real people out there, but the image of the Oriental that the West constructs displaces real Orientals or real Asians, and that the fantasy has tremendous power.

Part 2.

A sidebar about Orientalism that got away from me.

Though Madame Butterfly is one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the repertoire, in recent years there has been some back and forth about its more, let's say, problematic aspects.

A good and succinct assessment of some of the discourse around Madame Butterfly is from musicologist and pianist Kumi Shimazaki in Madame Butterfly, a Japanese perspective.

Unquote.

On a larger and sort of deeper scale, the reevaluation around Butterfly is centered on it as an Orientalist work.

Orientalism is a big academic topic, which University of Hawaii professor Mari Yoshihara, in a panel discussion for Boston Lyric Opera's The Butterfly Process series, summarized this way.

Quote, Orientalism is a concept that was most powerfully theorized by cultural literary critic Edward Said in his book called Orientalism, originally published in 1978.

That's as true in 1953 as it is in 2025.

Americans have some knowledge of Europe and even of the Orient, but the Middle East, Americans customarily envision as a landmass inhabited by glaucoma-ridden, shiftless Bedouins who neither could nor would ever be of importance to the United States.

A powerful propaganda machine consciously nurtured the widespread misconception that basic needs of the people of this region could be sacrificed without jeopardy to the national security of the United States.

and as there was thus no danger for the U.S. in a partition of Palestine, well-meaning Americans could afford making amends at the expense of those inconsequential Arabs to the Jews who had suffered so many injustices.

Into this, at the point which the ship had reached, there extends a deep inlet called after its discoverer, Frobisher's Strait.

Frobisher had found a new land, and its form, with a great sea passage running westward and land both north and south of it, made him think that this was truly the highway to the Orient.

He judged that the land seen to the north was part of Asia, reaching out and overlapping the American continent.

For many days, heavy weather and fog and the danger of the drifting ice prevented a landing.

Then, as the 17th century moved on its course, the shadow of civil strife fell dark over England.

The fierce struggle of the Great Rebellion ended for a time all adventure overseas.

When it had passed, the days of bold seafarers gazing westward from the decks of their little caravels over the glittering ice of the Arctic for a pathway to the Orient were gone, and the first period of northern adventure had come to an end.

End of chapter 1 Chapter 2 of Adventurers of the Far North by Stephen Leacock This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

It is interesting to note that the gaucho himself makes nearly everything connected with his outfit, from the saddle in which he rides to the boots which cover his feet.

Though these horsemen of the Orient and of South America are picturesque types of the riders of the world, the list would indeed be incomplete if we omitted our own Indian and cowboy.

To the former, no price is too high, no danger too threatening to risk, no undertaking too hazardous to attempt, that will win for him a horse.

His wealth is told in the number of his horses, and while he may keep his promise of peace to the settler, he can rarely resist borrowing one of his horses if occasion seems to him to demand the need of it.

For these reasons, and because the subject has received little attention, the present study has been undertaken.

Tea had long been known and used in the Orient before it was introduced into Europe in the early part of the seventeenth century.

At about the same time, two other new beverages appeared, chocolate from the Americas and coffee from the Near East.

The presence of these commodities in European markets is indicative of the vigorous exploration and active trade of that century, which also witnessed the successful settlement of colonies in North America.

It prevents and cures agues, surfeits, and fevers.

By the end of the 17th century, however, tea's medicinal qualities had become secondary to its fashionableness as a unique drink.

Tea, along with the other exotic and novel imports from the Orient, such as fragile porcelains, lustrous silks, and painted wallpapers, had captured the European imaginations.

Though the beverage was served in public pleasure gardens as well as coffeehouses during the early 1700s in England, social tea drinking in the home was gradually coming into favor.