Textual study gave Asia a precise dimension that reinforced myths of its distance

Evidence

For the first time, the Orient was revealed to Europe in the materiality of its texts, languages, and civilizations. Also for the first time, Asia acquired a precise intellectual and historical dimension with which to buttress the myths of its geographic distance and vastness. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 202

Categorization

• QUESTION: The paradox that more precise knowledge of Asia buttressed rather than corrected myths of its distance and vastness — worth chasing as a core Orientalist mechanism.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 202
• XREF: connects to: The European imagination constructs Asia as a speaking yet defeated other — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 158; Medieval studies and Orientalism share a distanced observational stance — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 812; Orientalist scholarship privileged a monolithic textual Islam over lived human realities — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 710 (+3 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: The European imagination constructs Asia as a speaking yet defeated other — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 158; Medieval studies and Orientalism share a distanced observational stance — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 812; Orientalist scholarship privileged a monolithic textual Islam over lived human realities — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 710 (+3 more)