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I’ve been alternating between episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s remarkable CNN show Parts Unknown, a Middle East-inflected dance record by a group called Acid Arab, which I’m writing a feature about, and the audiobook of Edward Said’s Orientalism. Alternating between these texts is leading to thought-provoking juxtapositions.
I’m nowhere near to arriving at a settled position on Bourdain’s relationship to the Orient. Having finally watched the somewhat infamous Tokyo Nights episode of Parts Unknown, I am not about to claim that he evaded the pitfalls of occidental fetishization. But I do think that the trajectory of the show demonstrates a sincere effort on his part to subject his own fetishistic impulses to critical scrutiny. The bar is set very low for Americans, when it comes to Orientalism, whether of the Near, Middle, or Far East. But Bourdain strikes me as one of the few prominent white celebrities to come anywhere near clearing it on a consistent basis.
I’m nowhere near to arriving at a settled position on Bourdain’s relationship to the Orient. Having finally watched the somewhat infamous Tokyo Nights episode of Parts Unknown, I am not about to claim that he evaded the pitfalls of occidental fetishization. But I do think that the trajectory of the show demonstrates a sincere effort on his part to subject his own fetishistic impulses to critical scrutiny. The bar is set very low for Americans, when it comes to Orientalism, whether of the Near, Middle, or Far East. But Bourdain strikes me as one of the few prominent white celebrities to come anywhere near clearing it on a consistent basis.