Al-i Ahmad framed Western influence as a hollowing-out infestation

Evidence

His most curious work, Gharbzadegi (later translated as Occidentosis: A Plague from the West, 1984), circulated as an underground publication from 1962. Gharbzadegi can be (awkwardly) translated as ‘Occidentosis’, ‘Euromania’, ‘West-toxification’ or ‘West-struckness’. ‘I speak of “Occidentosis” as of tuberculosis. But perhaps it more closely resembles an infestation of weevils. Have you seen how they attack wheat? From the inside. The bran remains intact, but it is just a shell, like a cocoon left behind on a tree.’ — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 568

Categorization

• XREF: Weevils hollowing wheat from within echoes the parasite metaphor and connects to images of empty shells in postcolonial writing on mimicry.
• FICTION: The weevil-on-wheat shell metaphor is a vivid image of internal hollowness usable in speculative fiction about infiltration.