Texts shape the reality they claim merely to describe

Evidence

There is a rather complex dialectic of reinforcement by which the experiences of readers in reality are determined by what they have read, and this in turn influences writers to take up subjects defined in advance by readers’ experiences. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 262

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the textual attitude’s self-reinforcing loop: reading determines experience which determines future writing.
• XREF: This is the proto-model of what Foucault later formalizes as discourse — connects directly to paragraph 263 where Said invokes Foucault. — connects to: The medium itself now produces truth rather than reflecting it. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 106
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 262