The Orient becomes a repeated pseudoincarnation of a Western original

Evidence

Thus the Orient acquired representatives, so to speak, and representations, each one more concrete, more internally congruent with some Western exigency, than the ones that preceded it. It is as if, having once settled on the Orient as a locale suitable for incarnating the infinite in a finite shape, Europe could not stop the practice; the Orient and the Oriental, Arab, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, or whatever, become repetitious pseudoincarnations of some great original (Christ, Europe, the West) they were supposed to have been imitating. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 169

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the mechanism by which representations of the Orient grow internally congruent with Western exigencies rather than with Oriental reality — a key concept for the toolkit.
• DEEPTHINKING: The phrase ‘incarnating the infinite in a finite shape’ captures how the Orient functions as a site where Europe projects its own theological and imperial longings onto a fixed, repetitive carrier.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 169