Monumental descriptive detail was a device that forestalled narrative movement in Orientalist texts.

Evidence

Lane’s control of his material is not only established through his dramatized double presence (as fake Muslim and genuine Westerner) and his manipulation of narrative voice and subject, but also through his use of detail. Each major section in each chapter is invariably introduced with some unsurprising general observation. For example, “it is generally observed that many of the most remarkable peculiarities in the manners, customs, and character of a nation are attributable to the physical peculiarities of the country.” 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. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 411

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Scaffolding Theory purpose: this is the machinery of representation — how description constructs the Other by piling detail precisely where causation might threaten the fixed image.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 411