Orientalism Now notes

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Section 1

Introduction

• Definitions
  • A way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in Europe (1)
  • Deep recurring images of the other
  • A style of thought based on the distinction between "The Orient" and "The Occident" (2)
  • A corporate institution for dealing with the Orient by making statements, teaching, settling, ruling (3)
  • A distribution of geopolitical awareness into aesthetic (12)
  • An elaborate geopolitical distinction to include interests, including landscape/sociology/psychology
• The Occident
  • Not oriental
  • 1800's to WWII it was France/Britain, post WWII to now it is America
• Qualifications of Orientalism (4)
  • It is not an idea, there are consistent ideas about the orient
  • The ideas cannot be understood without force, power and dominance
  • The structure is rooted in politics and bleeds out to the general population
• Hegemony (7)
  • Introduced through Gramsci
  • The idea that certain cultures rise over others, which leads to cultural leadership
  • The result of cultural hegemony gives orientalism its backbones, there are "us" the superior as opposed to "others"
  • There is hegemony of European ideas about the orient
  • There are two kinds of society: civil and political
  • Civil society consists of voluntary things: schools, families, unions and leads to culture
  • Political society consists of state institutionss: the army, polic and central bureacracy and leads to domination
• Pure political knowledge
  • Most knowledge is political, rare for knowledge to be simply pure
  • Be aware that no matter what, as a part of western culture, by studying orientalism we are orientalists
• Orientalism in the modern world
  • Provokes artists to their vision, but rarely guides them
  • Western representations make the orient visible and clear
  • Television, film and media have forced info into a standardized mold using cultural stereotyping

The Scope of Orientalism

• Arthur James Balfour
  • Spoke in 1990 to the House of Commons
  • Justifies the British occupation of Egypt through knowledge and power
  • The knowledge of things yields the ability ot dominate or have authority over something
  • Also claims that Egyptians are lucky to be occupied by a great power, it is a public service because it elevates the world community
• Circular logic justification of British occupation of England (34)
  • England knows Egypt
  • Therefore, England knows that Egypt does not have the ability for self governance
  • England confirms this fact by occupying Egypt (that they were able to occupy Egypt "proves" this point)
  • On the opposite side of the curtain:
  • Being occupied by England is all that Egypt knows
  • Being occupied has become a basis of human civilization in Egypt
  • Egypt therefore "insists" and requires to be occupied
  • AND England knows that Egypt feels this way because they have this "knowledge" of Egypt, so they know how they feel
• The implications of that circular logic
  • Egypt was only "good" or "productive" in the past, the only reason they are useful now is because England has kept them up to date
  • Therefore, the "modern" empire that is England has saved them from decline
  • Therefore, England knows better than Egypt does what it is that Egypt needs
  • It is clear here that knowledge leads to power, to get more power, more knowledge is required
• Cromer (38)
  • Led the English occupation of Egypt
  • Believed that all orientals were essentially the same, being that they were easy to manage
  • Knowledge on orientalists is static, they are all gullible, devoid of energy and lack logic
  • Deviation from this norm of oriental behavior is unatural
• Two principle elements of East/West relationships since mid-18th century
  • Knowledge, which was reinforced by an interest in the unknown with developing sciences
  • Strength, on political, cultural and religious grounds the West is strong and the East is weak
• Categorical polarization (54/60)
  • The rational, virtuous, mature and normal European project an idea of the East onto the East which is what actually creates the concept of the Oriental
  • By placing the East as a place for judgement, scrutiny, study and governing, the East is put into this box labeled "Oriental"
  • The projected ideals are therefore what the West comes to know the East by
  • These categories ultimately create more polarization between the two
  • Idea that everyone is creating metaphors to things that you know and so therefore it is okay
• Binary Opposition
  • Introduced by Kissinger
  • The World is developed by having ability to record/classify data, accuracy, post-Newtonian view of the world
  • The developing parts are pre- Newtonian
  • Post- Newtonian is the idea that the world is external to the observer (aka the world is real)
  • Pre- Newtonian is the idea that the world is internal to the observer

Discussion Notes

• Peter
  • Orientalism is not a myth, it is not just ideas, it is also a power structure
  • Use scholars to figure out how they are going to run colonies
  • It is intricate and not just an abstract
  • Must be able to move past the surface level description of people/ cultures
• Christine
  • Take existing things (Euro's do) and perscribe meanings to them
• Ohannah
  • Original thought that it referred to describing Asia and Japan
  • The scope of orientalism is wider than thought
  • If the knowledge is not based in fact, what kind of knowledge leads to what kind of power? Ideaological power? Justification?
  • Willingness of people to participate is based on that knowledge?
• Imaginitive Geography
  • Emphasizes the ridiculousness of the word "orient"
  • Is overgeneralization a necessary part of what makes it bad? No not necessarily, it can be specific but still offensive
  • Overgeneralization appears in other projects - ex how people characterize Native Americans
  • Is the overgeneralization separable from the mythology?
  • It certaintly makes it easier to say that there is an "other", it perpetuates the idea of teams
  • It also dehumanizes the people on the other side, inability to see the truth because you are so focused on the idea of the other "team"
• The orient is constructed through texts, ideas
• Orientalists make up lie and lie is cited and cited and cited until it ends up becoming true
• It is inherently flawed to try to describe a people, a culture, language
  • Direct experience is always better, implication is that we should defer to those who have direct experience
  • Taught that the text is an authority and to always trust that text, if you go and observe something that is different from that text then what you are observing is unnatural
• PAGE 108
  • People like us think of selves as making sense that we control most of the world, adding class anaylsis is more interesting
  • The people who are reaping benefits of colonialism is the people who are LEADERS, tiny minority within a minority of Westerners
  • The idea of the "us" vs "them" gets expanded so that the poorer people want to go and fight for their country
  • Racist us vs them functions to justify the colonization and pacify the people at home who would be in solidarity with people abroad
• Define knowledge as beliefs that are held
• Video games literalize this : all other people are just code and geometry and so because it is interactive, you are the only person that is a real person
• Games are an extension of orientalism
• Read section 2 in the next two weeks
• Design level interventions of brainstorming and sketching, looking into the specifics of the mechanics, what games other than minecraft have the same operational logics

Section 2

• "One cannot feel bitterness towards one's homeland. Better to be mistaken along with the nation than to be too right with those who tell it hard truths" (148)
• Scholars are trying to establish themselves as disinterested and objective
  • In order to support the power/domination of the empire, you use objectivity/disinterest
  • I am really objective, the natives are not and I am telling you what is right and what is right is that we need to govern the natives
  • Scientists cannot actually act with objectivity, have bias because not actually living and dont understand it
  • But scientists claim that they need some distance to study it objectively because otherwise they would be influenced by the culture
  • Idea that humanities and scientific studies are completely separate
  • Science is seen as the only legitimate way of engaging with the world
  • When you write (program) the way the world works, you imply that there are rules that run the world
  • "The growth of knowledge, particularly specialized knowledge, is a very slow process. Far from being merely additive or cumulative, the growth of knowledge is a processo of selective accumulation, displacement, deletion, rearrangement and insistence." (176)
  • Utility of orientalism, it was useful to have what was made from orientalism ### Plans
• Identifying mechanics
  • Brainstorm a list of mechanics in minecraft
  • Mechanics, dynamics, MDA framework