Orientalism - autonomous learning

162 ORIENTALISM
Orientalist Structures and Restructures
163
remarkable peculiarities in the manners, customs, and character of
a nation are attributable to the physical peculiarities of the country."72
What follows confirms this easily-the Nile, Egypt's "remarkably
salubrious" climate, the peasant's "precise" labor. Yet
instead of this leading to the next episode in narrative order, the
detail is added to, and consequently the narrative fulfillment expected
on purely formal grounds is not given. In other words,
although the gross outlines of Lane's text conform to the narrative
and causal sequence of birth-life-death, the special detail introduced
during the sequence itself foils narrative movement. From a
general observation, to a delineation of some aspect of Egyptian
character, to an account of Egyptian childhood, adolescence,
maturity, and senescence, Lane is always there with great detail to
prevent smooth transitions. Shortly after we hear about Egypt's
salubrious climate, for instance, we are informed that few Egyptians
live beyond a few years, because of fatal illness, the absence of
medical aid, and oppressive summer weather. Thereafter we are told
that the heat "excites the Egyptian [an unqualified generalization]
to intemperance in sensual enjoyments," and soon are bogged down
in descriptions, complete with charts and line drawings, of Cairene
architecture, decoration, fountains, and locks. When a narrative
strain re-emerges, it is clearly only as a formality.
What prevents narrative order, at the very same time that narrative
order is the dominating fiction of Lane's text, is sheer, overpowering,
monumental description. Lane's objective is to make
Egypt and the Egyptians totally visible, to keep nothing hidden from
his reader, to deliver the Egyptians without depth, in swollen detail.
As rapporteur his propensity is for sadomasochistic colossal tidbits:
the self"multilation of dervishes, the cruelty of judges, the blending
of religion with licentiousness among Muslims, the excess of
libidinous passions, and so on. Yet no matter how odd and perverse
the event and how lost we become in its dizzying detail, Lane is
ubiquitous, his job being to reassemble the pieces and enable us
to move on, albeit jerkily. To a certain extent he does this by just
being a European who can discursively control the passions and
excitements to which the Muslims are unhappily subject. But to an
even greater extent, Lane's capacity to rein in his profuse subject
matter with an unyielding bridle of discipline and detachment
depends on his cold distance from Egyptian life and Egyptian
productivity.
The main symbOlic moment occurs at the beginning of chapter 6,
"Domestic Life-Continued." By now Lane has adopted the narrative
convention of taking a walk through Egyptian life, and having
reached the end of his tour of the public rooms and habits of an
Egyptian household (the social and spatial worlds are mixed
together by him), he begins to discuss the intimate side of home life.
Immediately, he "must give some account of marriage and the
marriage-ceremonies." As usual, the account begins with a general
observation: to abstain from marriage "when a man has attained a
sufficient age, ~nd when there is no just impediment, is esteemed
by the Egyptians improper, and even disreputable." Without transition
this observation is applied by Lane to himself, and he is found
guilty. For one long paragraph he then recounts the pressures placed
on him to get married, which he unflinchingly refuses. Finally, after
a native friend even offers to arrange a mariage de convenance,
also refused by Lane, the whole sequence is abruptly terminated
with a period and a dash. T3 He resumes his general discussion with
another general observation.
Not only do we have here a typical Lane-esque interruption of
the main narrative with untidy detail, we have also a firm and
literal disengagement of the author from the productive processes
of Oriental society. The mini:narrative of his refusal to join the
society he describes concludes with a dramatic hiatus: his story
cannot continue, he seems to be saying, so long as he does not
enter the intimacy of domestic life, and so he drops from sight as a
candidate for it. He literally abolishes himself as a human subject
by refusing to marry into human society. Thus he preserves his
authoritative identity as a mock participant and bolsters the objectivity
of his narrative. If we already knew that Lane was a non­
Muslim, we· now know too that in order for him to become an
Orientalist-instead of an Oriental-he had to deny himself the
sensual enjoyments of domestic life. Moreover, he had also to avoid
Iii
" dating himself by entering the human life-cycle. Only in this negative
way could he retain his timeless authority as observer.
it, , 1
Lane's choice was between living without "inconvenience and
, '
, ~I discomfort" and accomplishing his study of the modern Egyptians.
The result of his choice is plainly to have made possible his definition
of the Egyptians, since had he become one of them, his perspec­
Ir
I tive would no longer have been antiseptically and asexually
lexicographical. In two important and urgent ways, therefore, Lane
gains scholarly credibility and legitimacy. First, by interfering with
the ordinary narrative course of human life: this is the function of
l