Knowledge of other cultures requires conscious effort crossing distance.
Evidence
Every interpreter is a reader, and there is no such thing as a neutral or value-free reader. Every reader, in other words, is both a private ego and a member of a society, with affiliations of every sort linking him or her to that society. Working through national feelings like patriotism or chauvinism to private emotions like fear or despair, the interpreter must seek in a disciplined way to employ reason and the information he or she has gained through formal education (itself a long interpretative process) so that understanding may be achieved. … It is precisely this conscious willed effort of overcoming distances and cultural barriers that makes knowledge of other societies and cultures possible — and at the same time limits that knowledge. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 351
Categorization
- DEFINE: Lays out the disciplined effort that converts prejudice into genuine understanding of an alien text.
- DEEPTHINKING: The double claim that the same willed effort both enables and limits cross-cultural knowledge is a genuinely subtle point worth sitting with.