The Edward Said Reader

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring Proximities
Review: An excellent compilation of Said's multi-disciplinary prowess, in fields ranging from middle-eastern politics to polyphonic Western classical music. Said's eloquence and thorough analytical commentary engages the reader to a deeper understanding of often misinterpreted issues, notably the flawed ideology of Zionism that has dehumanized the Palestinian population. Said's oeuvre serves to liberate humanity from the opportunistic assumptions of authority by shedding light on all facets of human experience. Those who seek to quench their intellectual thirst will find The Edward Said Reader to be an indispensable resource.

Rating:
Summary: Eddie at his wild and wacky best!
Review: Don't invite Eddie Said and Norman Podhoretz to the same party! Cat fight!

Rating:
Summary: The Edward Said Reader
Review: Edward Said, the renowned literary & cultural critic & passionately engaged intellectual, is one of our era's most formidable, provocative, & important thinkers. For more than three decades, his books, which include Culture & Imperialism, Peace & Its Discontents, & the seminal study Orientalism, have influenced not only our worldview but the very terms of public discourse. The Edward Said Reader includes key sections from all of Said's books, from the ground-breaking 1966 study of Joseph Conrad to his new memoir, Out of Place. Whether he is writing of Zionism or Palestinian self-determination, Jane Austen or Yeats, music or the media, Said's uncompromising intelligence casts urgent light on every subject he undertakes. The Edward Said Reader will prove a joy to the general reader & an indispensable resource for scholars of politics, history, literature, & cultural studies: in short, of all those fields that his work has influenced and, in many cases, transformed. "Said is a brilliant & unique amalgam of scholar, aesthete & political activist.... [He] challenges & stimulates our thinking in every area." --Washington Post Book World. "No one studying the relations between the metropolitan West & the decolonizing world can ignore Mr. Said's work

Rating:
Summary: Eddie at his wild and wacky best!
Review: I think the best way to understand Said is to see him as an admirer of culture, especially western literature, but an uneasy admirer. Said was not born in one of the European capitols but in Egypt and so he grew up well aware of the east/west conflict & nowhere was that conflict more apparent than in the Palestine and Israel situation. Perhaps his own background and growing involvement in Middle Eastern affairs led him to begin reading the classic western texts in a more critical way than those that came before him and from western backgrounds. As an easterner Said in his cultural studies was therefore especially attuned to the way the east was representated in the west. Judging by his 1978 study Orientalism he was appalled at what he found.
There were schools of criticism that dealt with economic realities and historic realites before Said but only a few studies had concentrated on racial bias as a determining factor in cultural production(ie:Benita Parry's 1972 Delusions and Discoveries). Saids approach was groundbreaking and it brought to cultural studies a very timely and responsive social relevance. No one can really ignore the impact that Orientalism had. Even though the ideas in the book were all in circulation before Saids book Orientalism brought a new intensity and immediacy to them. To Said cultural artifacts can never be divorced from their political context and so his work often resituates each work he discusses within the political situation from which it arose. This is often very interesting but not without considerable controversy because while Said can be quite a profound thinker he cann also be a highly speculative one as well. Many of his arguments hinge on only partially convincing evidence and so to follow him is sometimes more an act of faith than one of reason.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but difficult
Review: This book is a compilation of a number of works from Edward Said's career. It contains excerpts on subjects such as literary criticism, orientalism and the Palestine-Israel "problem." He does a good job at engaging those "critics" that came before him, and either disagreeing or continuing where they left off. His writing style is more like that of a philosopher than a literary critic. This book is not an easy read, and having a background in other philosophical readings is a must. While the book does not explore any one topic deeply, for those readers looking to find Said's opinions and arguments on a number of different subjects it is a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but difficult
Review: This book is a compilation of a number of works from Edward Said's career. It contains excerpts on subjects such as literary criticism, orientalism and the Palestine-Israel "problem." He does a good job at engaging those "critics" that came before him, and either disagreeing or continuing where they left off. His writing style is more like that of a philosopher than a literary critic. This book is not an easy read, and having a background in other philosophical readings is a must. While the book does not explore any one topic deeply, for those readers looking to find Said's opinions and arguments on a number of different subjects it is a good read.