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Tempting new Penguin Classic edition...

Evenings listening

#DiverseAThon Day 6: a book that made you think differently

OK so I know this looks a bit pretentious, but hear me out. Reading this at uni made me realise that I (little old me!) can disagree with important people. I don't have to agree with what old straight white men have to say! My opinion is just as valid! That was a huge turning point for my confidence in myself as an academic and as a person.

#diversebooks #diversebookbloggers

Finished my S entry for #LitsyAtoZ, Sarah Tiffin's Southeast Asia in Ruins. The book is not on the Litsy database but worth reading alongside Orientalism. It's an engaging academic study on the production of knowledge by Western European and British colonisers of Southeast Asia by means of visual representations of ruins (and architecture and landscape). It's a beautifully made hardback by NUS Press in Singapore. Concise and illuminating.

Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others, that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn't trust the evidence of one's eyes watching the destruction

Orientalism signifies the arrival of post-colonial studies, and remains, as far as I'm concerned, one of the most important works of criticism in recent history. This book is not only profoundly insightful but deeply engrossing, and it's been crucial to my growth as a reader. 🤘🤘🤘