Edward Said: Orientalism & James Bond Genre



Edward Said’s essay, “Orientalism,” discusses the Western conception of the Middle East from the West’s imperialist penetrations and attempted dominance from Napoleon’s attack of Egypt in the eighteenth century on. Orientalism is a word that Said gives ownership of to the West’s perception and condescension to the Middle East and perhaps other previously colonized areas.  He explains how the post-Enlightenment West was able to form “Orientalism” as an unequal half to the Occident through “scholarly discovery, philological reconstruction, psychological analysis, landscape and sociological description, it not only creates but also maintains. Of course, this was all accompanied by the military strength of the West. He questions knowledge gleaned entirely from text as opposed to knowledge attained by personal experience, with the implication that had Europeans learned of the Orient through the latter, they would have a different perception of Oriental reality. The West’s world hegemony created by their imperialist dominance, a Oriental inferior “Other.”

His conception of the West view of the Orient as inferior established a rationalization for the West’s imperialism of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. He gives an example of Britain’s attempt to maintain an image of superiority by making mandatory for colonial administrators to retire at the age of fifty-five, thus keeping the British image to the colonized as powerful and youthful. However, as Cynthia Baron notes in her essay, “Doctor No: Bonding Britishness to racial sovereignty,” from 1945 to 1960 British lost or relinquished control of its colonial empire “some 500 million people in former British Dependencies who became completely self-governing. These formerly colonized were people of color, and Baron illustrates how the British film industry incorporates subtle and not too subtle implications of British white racial superiority through their Bond film, and uses Ian Fleming’s Dr. No, as an example. At the time of his writing these novels, his James Bond persona gave a very troubling British response to the unprecedented immigration from the West Indies, India and Pakistan. By the mid-1960s. 2 percent of Britain’s total population was already made up of people from the colonies.” (Baron p. 139). She underscores the  “ ‘sneaky Asians and ‘bungling’ that are reflected in the Bond movie.  

It may be ironic, however, when Baron mentions that Ian Fleming’s original intent with these novels may have been as a kind of parody or spoof at the typical patriarchal macho spy character. His Bond character is quite courageous in his action to combat our cold war communist adversaries—the  Russians and the Red Chinese. (I recall reading as a teenager that in an interview around 1959 John F. Kennedy, our future president mentioned that his favorite author was Ian Fleming, which led to the author’s overwhelming popularity.) Baron alludes to Edward Said’s “Orientalism” throughout her discourse and basically agrees with Said that the antagonists in Bond’s spy thrillers are  often the embodiment of the Oriental representing the Other. As Baron implies, the British became a cultural leader of West with these aexports of admired Bond films and  trendy  music even if they were not an empire anymore.

A New World Disorder?

            My apologies for posting late: this is supposed to be the 2/20/12 post; however, I was quite ill last weekend with the flu and asked Dr. Wexler for a few day extension, which I am most grateful for.

            In this reflection I will concentrate on Chapter 5—“A New World Disorder”—of our main text, Cultural Studies Theory and Practice, by Chris Barker through addressing the questions Dr. Wexler asked the class on 2/20/12.

1.      What is meant by the “new world disorder?” We have been experiencing a radical change in our social, economic, cultural, and political orders which is creating a new global disorder.  Globalization is the catalyst and may be the latest stage of  world capitalism, albeit primarily Western. Japan is included; however, Barker does not include the emergence of China as a country extending its economic hegemony across the world, understandably, as the last edition is 2000, and China’s economic influence has proliferated immensely since then. These changes are referred to post-Fordism, post-industrial society, post-modernism. Harvey posits that the post-Ford era may have started during the 1970s when “western economies were facing increased price competition from Japan and newly industrialized countries.” To meet the production power of other countries for instance, the USA modified its method for higher profits and our manufacturing sector transitioned to a more technological and service oriented economy. As a result a large segment of our middle class work force diverged in opposite direction—one becoming technology and service oriented, and one becoming less skilled and making less wages. Thus there has been a “terminal” decline in the manual working class, a rise in service and white-collar work, expressed as the two-thirds: one-third society.” (148). Unfortunately, a large segment of the one-third society is engaged in de-skilled, part-time work or forms a new ‘underclass’ of the unemployed.  It is probably wishful thinking or deceit when politicians running for office promise to “bring back manufacturing” jobs to the USA. We live in a world now where manufacturing profits are made by cheaper labor overseas, including outsourcing technological services in developing countries like India and the Philippines.

A result of globalization, half the world’s wealth is concentrated in two-hundred transnational companies. Part of our disorder is also is a consumer market where products signify upper mobility, a sense community and family are corrupted, and our spiritual well being manifested in self-actualization is harder to attain.

2.      What was the “old world dis / order?” This refers to Fordism in the industrialization methods of” large-scale production of standardized goods in the context of mass consumption. This required a system of relatively high wages, at least for core workers, which was attained at the peak of labor union effectiveness. Unfortunately there was a low-wage sector in which women and people of color were over-represented.” (142). This necessitated the USA dominate the world currencies, the state played a role as creator of social welfare, and as a resolver of corporate conflicts of interest  Coinciding with his economic prosperity was of course the hegemony of  western imperialism to sure up protected foreign raw materials and protective markets. Some by-products of this were hybridization with hegemony flowing to and back, including hegemonic population becoming multicultural through immigration.

3.      In his chapter [14], Cultural Politics and Cultural Policy,” Chris Barker suggests that multiculturalism and neo-pragmatism could be a strategy for supporting or resisting the “new world disorder.” Explain why/how.  This is an invigorating and challenging question and I can answer it more knowledgeably after I read the chapter. However, in my limited scope, globalization and multiculturalism has made the world more interdependent on each other and possibly has circumscribed nation-states from military aggression to the fullest extent at least, and made us a multicultural world.  Those countries that are introverted and myopic towards the world have suffered the most, e.g. North Korea, and fundamentalist Islamic country such as Afghanistan. However, within countries where the new world dis / order has transpired, many individual groups, such as New Social Movements:  anti-Vietnam protests, civil rights struggles, women’s movement, and most recently gay and lesbian rights movement, have emerged as a cultural phenomena separated from the traditional class politics of labor movements” (171). In addition, there are individual self-reliance movements striving for self-actualization.

4.      Give an example from popular culture (e.g., film or TV) where one finds evidence of a new world disorder. Explain why.  American Psycho reflects the outer kilter values of a consumer society where the artificial value people place on commodities has supplanted genuine gratification and spirituality. This particular movie portrays a psychotic killer who is the product of this disordered world. In addition, but on the brighter side, Jerry Maguire is a story of an initially self-serving sports agent overcoming this world devoid of  meaningful spirituality; however the main character becomes selfless and creates a self-actualizing result for him and his loved one, where a lot of people benefit spiritually..

I want to end this refection with a couple of points: First, I misunderstood when someone brought up the concept of “global narcissism” last week. I believe it relates to politicians and citizens not willing to sacrifice the present for the future, which was indeed in the context of our discussion of global disorder. Secondly, a couple of weeks ago a colleague asked the question which I had posed into our presentation of Cat on a Hot tin Roof , but inadvertently omitted my answer, which I would like to inject now:

•       Question # 4 True or False:

•      During the 1950’s, the “Culture from Above,” in this case the move industry, would have made it too difficult to produce a movie adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  verbatim.

•      Answer to Question # 4: True

•      The conservative and sexually repressive environment during that period would have made William’s written play too radical and controversial for mainstream America to accept its themes including homosexuality, homophobia, and latent homosexuality. The film version modified the conflict to be about loyalty in friendship, marriage, and the ability to love.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Trying to get ready for our project on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  has been trying this week: there has been a lot of communication, and lapses of communication amongst our seven members, but I believe we are coalescing—and as they say in sports: peaking—at the right time. For a few days I was rereading and making notes pertinent to our project and contemplating how to specifically  contribute, but I did not realize that there was already a Google Document  that a few of my colleagues were participating in. I helped arrange both meetings--the first and the last; however, some wanted to present the information in lecture form; I advocated a classroom activity which the others bought into but wanted to have  "game show" type presentation, which I thought was to extreme and did not agree with but went along with it reluctantly. From the outset I recommended we synthesize are input into a power point  type presentation, and have an activity that would include classroom participation, and acting out scenes.
 After a lot of discussion it appears that after all we are giving a presentation that coincides with most of my initial suggestions including the pertinent dialogue, power point presentation to go along with analysis, incorporating how the cultural and critical theorists are relevant to our interpretations. I was concerned for a while because I had not partnered up with anyone to do a segment but Ken emailed me yesterday and suggested I call him today, and we are supposed to introduce dialogue that reflects possibly “class.”

I will bring in some Marxist Theory, the article on “The Politics of Culture”   by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, and Ferdinand De Saussure, and how their theories relate to our Tennessee Williams's play. (I also bought a lot of candy and treats for our classmates tomorrow to be given as prizes for answering our questions correctly.) We have all been busy contacting each other in our Popular Culture Group for presenting Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, trying to facilitate cohesion amongst us. I believe we will have a good presentation for tomorrow; everyone ultimately contributed wonderfully, and it has been a good experience sharing each other's views, albeit I am a little behind the eight-ball now and need to do a few more hours of preparation tonight and tomorrow so my contribution to the power point presentation goes smoother tomorrow.

 A few hours ago I watched the movie adaption from 1958 of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and got quite emotional with the scenes of Big Daddy and Brick, especially when Brick helped Big Daddy reach down deep and acknowledge that yes, he did once love someone a lot—his dad, who died from a heart attack but with a smile on his face while trying to jump a train with Bid Daddy when he was about ten years old. While reaching back fifty-five years to when his dad died, Big Daddy breaks down, admitting that yes he did love his dad so much, irregardless that his dad was dirt poor and at times traveled and rubbed shoulders among the hoboes. In the movie this was an emotional climactic scene because Big Daddy's love for his Dad as a ten year old was probably the last time he allowed himself to love. I related to Big Daddy and his scene with Brick because I lost my beloved dad about fifty-five years ago and also  have an estranged relationship with my son who is about Brick's age.
Of course the written play does not emphasize this highlight this so I can’t delve too much into it, other than the fact that although Big Daddy has now become an upper echelon bourgeoisie, he and his dad had origins from the working poor, the proletariat, when his dad would pick up odd and temporary jobs and live as a transient. I will also bring in “class” in relation to Maggie, Brick, Big Mamma, Mae, and Gooper. One last thought:  although the Tennessee Williams version that we read is a truly great and riveting play, the movie adaptation for me may be superior. 

Reflection: Structuralism and Poststructuralism

Ferdinand de Saussure

Chapter 3 in Cultural Studies, by Chris Barker, deals with the importance of language and culture.  I will post a YouTube clip pertinent to my discussion at a later date this week as I must refresh my knowledge on how to do that. Last week’s discussion in class, Barker’s Chapter 3, and our supplemental reading that Dr. Wexler has supplied us with, covers a lot of ground. Barker and the theorists in the chapter underscore the importance of language but at the same time discuss its limitation. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) initiated the topic of semiotics which is the study of signs. “For Saussure, [and the structuralists] a signifying system is constituted by a series of signs that are analyzed in terms of their constituent parts,” namely the signifier and signified (Barker 76). A signifier can be a word, something physical—a picture for instance in an advertisement, or a sight of something, or a act of speech or sound—which connects you to an image of the signified. Of course, this is arbitrary, i.e. things mean different things to different people: red is designated at a traffic light in the USA to stop, and in the accounting world designated losses on financial statements. However, in China it designates a symbol for luck, happiness, and marxist unity. The red blush can also reflect embarrassment.

  Roland Barthes continues the discourses on this system of signification, namely, denotation and connotation. And the different above clips reflect the different connotations and signified results of the signifier "red."

Denotation is the dictionary or literal meaning of a word which within a culture is standard for everyone.  However, connotation is “meaning generated by connecting signifiers to wider cultural concerns” (Barker 79).  He gives an example for instance of a pig connoting a “nasty police office or a male chauvinist” (79). A pig can also connote succulent meat or a helpful farm animal. He makes an interesting point in exemplifying how the system can be continuous: as a signification process of a signifier and a signified which produces a denotative meaning can then serve as a signifier for second order of connotation. He terms this as a “spatialized metaphor” (79). Barthes later brought up the idea of signs being “polysemic” or having many potential meanings. Changes in culture in turn cause signs to be continuously dynamic. 

Structuralism evolved into postructuralism which maintained “there can be no denotative meaning that is clear, descriptive and stable; rather, meaning is always deferred and in process” (83). Barthes was among those whose views became more stringent and evolved into poststructuralism. Intertextuality, the impact texts have on each other, reflects this instability. Jacques Derrida’s work expounded on this frame of thought. However, he takes Saussure’s work and declares that “there is no original meaning outside of signs. He makes a distinction between speech and writing. He points out that” nature is a concept of language (culture) and not a pure state beyond signs.”  He stipulates that the “word of God is available only through the unstable signs of writing (the Bible) and literal meaning is always underpinned by metaphor—its apparent opposite” (84). Derrida refutes Socrates’ claim that speech is more truthful than writing and finds its argument fallacious. However, later Derrida chooses speech over writing in reflecting truth. Derrida’s Difference refers to “The production of meaning in the process of signification is continually deferred an supplemented” (85). His Deconstruction Treatise involves the dismantling the hierarchical binary oppositions such as speech –writing, reality-appearance. In essence, he is an anti-essentialist, in that words have no universal meaning “for Derrida, meaning has the potential to proliferate into infinity. 

In a few days I will continue with Michel Foucault, Lacan and Freud, Wittgenstein, Jean-Francois Lyotard,  Rorty,  and Simone de Beauvoir, regarding her essay “The Second Sex, Woman as Other” written in 1949.