Every trait ascribed to Persians by Laingen has a Western cultural equivalent.
Evidence
The elegance of this modest proposal is that literally everything imputed to the Persian or Muslim, without any evidence at all, can be applied to “the American,” that quasi-fictional, unnamed author behind the message. Who but “the American” denies history and reality in saying unilaterally that these mean nothing to “the Persian”? Now play the following parlor game: find a major Judeo-Christian cultural and social equivalent for the traits that Laingen ascribes to “the Persian.” Overriding egoism? Rousseau. Malevolence of reality? Kafka. Omnipotence of God? Old and New Testaments. Lack of causal sense? Beckett. Bazaar mentality? The New York Stock Exchange. Confusion between words and reality? Austin and Searle. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 104
Categorization
- SEED: The ‘parlor game’ of finding Western equivalents for stereotyped traits could anchor an essay on how all national-character talk is projective.