The canal ceremony staged the West’s permanent domination of the Orient

Evidence

The whole world seemed crowded in to render homage to a scheme that God could only bless and make use of himself. Old distinctions and inhibitions were dissolved: the Cross faced down the Crescent, the West had come to the Orient never to leave it (until, in July 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser would activate Egypt’s taking over of the canal by pronouncing the name of de Lesseps). — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 258

Categorization

• XREF: The parenthetical on Nasser pronouncing de Lesseps’s name echoes the anticolonial reversal — connects to the later Islamophobia readings on postcolonial resistance and sovereignty. — connects to: The Suez Canal completed the Orient’s transformation from hostile distance into submissive possession — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 259; British imperial presence was conceived as permanently transforming the Orient; Culture, not merely power, dynamically created Western interest in the Orient — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 71 (+11 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 258
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: The Suez Canal completed the Orient’s transformation from hostile distance into submissive possession — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 259; British imperial presence was conceived as permanently transforming the Orient; Culture, not merely power, dynamically created Western interest in the Orient — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 71 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• The Orient was cast as a passive stage for European world-historical action #corroborates (0.93) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 225
• The Orient is granted the fiction of self-representation while being represented for Western audiences #complicates (0.72)