Edward Said Details

Edward Said - The Last Interview

Edward Said was one of the most prominent Palestinian activists and important literary critics of the 20th century who died after a long battle with leukemia. As the leukaemia sapped his health, Said stopped giving interviews but about a year before he died, he gave this, The Last Interview which was recorded over three days. It runs for 3 ½ hours taking in his early life and influences, his education, his ground breaking books Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism. Politics comes second in this interview although through some formal question and answer questions Said discusses his anger at the Oslo Accords and his falling out with Yasser Arafat. The interview is spent discussing his literary work, his relationships, his early life, his exile in the US. I was disappointed that the interview did not give equal time to his views and knowledge of the Palestinian situation. Nevertheless, the interview sparkles with Said’s curiousity and passion despite Charles Glass’ wooden questioning. One senses an anger simmering underneath his words, on the surface Edward is always quiet and dignified. At times it is emotional for the viewer especially when he talks of his defeat at the hands of his illness. The preoccupation for Said at this time must have been preparing for his eventual death, but the interviewer is awkward and the interview lacks intimacy, Said leaves much unsaid.

On 9/11 he says that he discovered that many of his friends suddenly discovered a love of US imperialism. He doesn’t mention Christopher Hitchens, nor does Charles Glass, the interviewer, push him to do so.

On cancer, he remarks that most people so diagnosed either recover or die. But Said did neither, and instead survived, often in continuous pain.

On the role of the intellectual, to be oppositional to the dominant culture and attack orthodoxies.

I am disappointed that there was not more on Said’s views on Palestine however, the opportunity to follow Said’s thoughts on music, literature and the details he shares here and there of his life are rewarding.