Maid

Do you want a live-in maid who´s dressed in a dirndl?

answers

I have never used condoms. She was born out of immaculate conception. What name do you like for a girl.

The maid on the photograph looks like a man to me ... even though I must say her legs are wonderful. And shaved, as far as I can see.

Crisis

Mendie seems right...
The maid in the picture looks man made. Gorgeous legs, but what is looming at the end !
As I was watching 'Magnolia' last night, I saw devestation in lives and minds alike. One of the few, if not the only, billboard movie bearable to watch...

Ybe

Manon

I think an apron will do for my live-in maid.

CRISIS

I remember W. 13th street when I used to walk through the village on Sundays, coming from Hauppauge with the train, getting off at Penn.
13th street indeed had a theatre, four cinemas if I'm correct.
Best cities in the world Amsterdam and New York...

Who is the man in the picture? Is it Tess?

PS: My dearest Anna & Arnon,
To me it looks like the two of you are developping a love-hate relationship.

Therapy

Everybody evolves on this site. I'm the only one who doesn't.

A Man Needs a Maid

I was thinking that maybe I'd get a maid,
Find a place nearby for her to stay.
Just someone to keep my house clean,
Fix my meals and go away.

-- Neil Young

(Maybe it's a phase that every man needs to go through?!)

@Arnon

It's not that difficult, just move to any developing country and you can have your live-in maid.

thank you Friede

I was desperately waiting for anyone, someone to remember me, and there it is! So now, I not only simply exist in cyberspace, but also in human memory. Yours eternally, Tess.
ps: I am in fact quite beautiful.

Noa

I used the words "end up." The maid can wait. I plan to have a live-in maid when I'm 55. The maid doesn't have to be female. A demi-transsexual (see: The Birdcage) might be suitable as well.

Wide stance

The official police report, detailing the arrest of Senator Larry Craig for lewd behavior in an airport bathroom, is a gem.

"In a recorded post-Miranda interview, Craig stated the following: (...) He has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine."

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0828071craig1.html

Dens,
Could you describe the evolvement of some people that visit this site on a regular basis?

@ Tess

Your world has already expanded to the printed (copied) world . You are named in Anton's Schone lakens.

I think Arnon evolved the most.

Mieke

How depressing.

Coetzee and the maid

It is a sheer delight to read Coetzee ‘Diary of a bad year’ – he is a kind man - with Houellebecq ‘Platform’ in the background of your mind.
@Arnon, when you will be 55, I can recommend you to invite a beautiful young Thai maid. Even for you it shall be a joy to be outsmarted and outwitted in the most gentile and funny way, if at least you still behave as a kind man. (Philippe women will outsmart you in a more serious way. Western girls tend to outwit you brutally.- It has something to do with culture, I think).

What is depressing Tess? To live for ever in a work by Arnon Grunberg?
Or is the fact that Arnon evolved in his comments so depressing to you?

@ Jan

Maybe it's because we are treated in a brutal way that we behave more brutally.

@Mieke
That is a statement I shall not deny. I hope you like to read Coetzee and Houellebecq (De wereld als markt en strijd / Platform) too.

I loved reading Coetzee, I still need to reed Platform.

Noa

For an Egyptian fling I really recommend you to come to Egypt.

Arnon

Maybe I will read your book, or I maybe I will talk to anyone else who visited a settlement, or maybe I will simply visit one myself.

With regard to your comment on the Arab thing, I must say that I agree with Edward Said's thesis that beneath exoticism indeed lies a kind of rascism. That does not, however, mean that one can equate e to r.

With regard to your questions and my answers. Ask me relevant questions and you will get non-flippant answers. Unless of course I have already answered the question in a book or an article, in which case I will gently refer you to those.

Batta

You are clearly opposed to the free flow of information. And you seem to think that your questions are relevant whereas my questions are irrelevant. Probably you have never learned to distrust your feeling that it is you who is right -- very common among all kinds of believers. Regarding: Said. It is more correctly to use the word orientalism.

Arnon

Isn't orientalism merely a case of exoticism? Said seems to think so.

What makes you think I never assume that I may be wrong?

Jan Thys

A friend of mine got married to his Philippine maid.
Jan Thys, do you prefer men or women or do you despise them both?

Batta

Your statements give the impression that your own convictions cannot be doubted.
Your weak spot for Arabs is clearly a case of orientalism, that orientalism is a subset of exoticism is probably true, but when you can be specific, why not be specific?
Please keep in mind that when I ask questions these questions are relevant to me.
And when you are in Egypt, surrounded by Arab men (and women) why do you visit this site so often?
Unfortunately I have problems passing as an Arab. A citizen from Turin, that is as far south as I can go.

Aron

Being able to pass as a citizen from Turin may be quite helpful in some cases. I am not sure it would protect you from husslers on the streets of Cairo.

I am at the moment in Cairo, please do not doubt the truth value of statements that refer to empirical facts.

I am here to meet up with my fiancee, who is travelling to Cairo too. He got delayed and now I am waiting for him to arrive in a hotel in the centre of Cairo. The hotel is located across the street from Omar Effendi's furniture shop and it has a Russian prostitute already taking care of all the Arab men. There is, however, an internet connection. And I brought a book by Nagib Mahfuz.

When my awaited company arrives tomorrow morning, I am sure he will want to leave this place.

I read your book ' Asylum seeker' . I was both disappointed and curious. That's why I visited your site in the first place.

Batta

I didn’t ask you why came to this site, I asked you why you keep coming back.
Where does your fiancé come from?
I once heard about a Dutch/Moroccan/Jewish woman (we were in high school together but we lost contact) who had a fling with a man from Saudi-Arabia. For obvious reasons they could not meet in Saudi-Arabia, so they met in Cairo.
The fling ended when the man took a shit while this young woman was taking a shower next to the toilet. At least that’s how the story goes.

Batta

PS I know you are in Cairo. That is something I can check.

@Mieke

Let me ask you: are you tall and blonde and did you recently shelter from the rain in the Leidsestraat?
If so: you're truly very graceful.

orientalism

Orientalism as used by Said isn't exactly a subcategory of exotism. Where exotism refers to having a preference for the exotic, the unfamiliar (which indeed often involves a paternalistic or racist element), orientalism refers to a certain way of speaking about the east and eastern people, to a certain discourse that creates an imaginary of 'the east' and 'eastern people' that has nothing to do with reality but everything with the image the west has of it. As with any discourse, those who are creating it will benefit much more from the created image than those who are undergoing it. Even saying a lot of nice things about a cultural or ethnical or whatever kind of group, it's still the one who's talking who has the power to decide what these people are like, what they need, what they should do.
So talking about having a crush on Arabs: i don't think there's anything wrong with that, just as there's nothing wrong with having a crush on tall people or people with green eyes, but why make such an issue out of it? Giving it so much importance looks like contributing to the orientalist discourse.

@ tess

I'm sorry but I am nothing like that at all.I am a greeneyed , small ,darkhaired middleaged woman with a degree in orientalism. That's all.
I am still not certain that any of my concepts about the east ever were than mere orientalism, though that's what I studied.

Zanna

First: I have never read Said’s book on Orientalism. (I have read another book by Mr. Said and some of his articles.) Second: Your description of orientalism reads to me as exactly a subcategory of exoticism.
I would say that there is a distinction between the declaration that you have a crush on tall men and the declaration that you have a crush on Arabs, gypsies, negroes, Jews or Hindus.
Your failure to see this distinction makes your other statement less plausible.
By the way have you read Occidentalism by Buruma and Margalith? Speaking about exoticism.

Arnon

If you understand orientalism as having a preference for everything that has to do with the orient, then of course i agree it is a subcategory of exoticism. But orientalism as I understood it from Said stands apart from liking or not liking eastern people, it has to do with giving descriptions (that can be positive or negative) and building theories about them without ever going in dialogue, pretending to know better than them how they really are. I think orientalism can be seen as a subcategory of 'eurocentric constructions of the other'. I guess exoticism can easily lead to orientalism, someone with a preference for exotic people may come to think he or she knows better than they themselves how exotic people are, but it isn't necessary to speak of exoticism. To speak of orientalism it is.

As long as a crush on Arabs is not accompanied with the thought that Arabs form a separate kind of people, why should there be a difference with a crush on tall people? What about the quite common crush on dark Spanish or Italian men, is it different from the crush on Arab men?

I have not read Occidentalism. Is it worth reading?

Zanna

Having a crush on Arab men is probably a side effect of what you cal a euro-centric construction of the other.
If you declare that you have a crush on Arabs you inevitably think that Arabs are different from others.
FYI the original declaration on this site was: a crush on Arabs. (Only teeny-boppers say things like: “I have a crush on Italian men.” By the way, in the world of prostitution it is common to call Latin-American girls Italian, maybe also due to the euro-centric construction of the other. Johns prefer the other to be not too exotic.)
I’m not going to censor this statement (crush on Arabs) – I’m just suggesting that there is a tiny bit of probably unconscious racism hidden in this declaration. The more mundane explanation would be that the speaker is trying to be ironic.
The book by Buruma & Margalith is worth reading. (Especially if you look at the world and discover euro-centric constructions of the other wherever you look.)
This might sound dubious but between us: are you exotic?

The "only teeny-boppers..." argument doesn't really convince me. Have to go now, but I'll already answer your question: no, I don't consider myself exotic.

Zanna

Darling the phrase about teenyboppers was not my main argument. (I apologize for the hyphen between teeny and bopper my mistake.) It was placed between parentheses for good reasons.
Now I know that you are not exotic, you are probably a teenybopper. Or no, of course you are my euro-centric construction of the other.

If it's not the teenybopper thing, then could you tell me what your main argument is?
Or maybe you prefer to change the subject from orientalism to teenybopper stuff?

In the beginning

There was a me, who told ‘as a young child I had a crush on Arabs, you know for the tents, the clothes, the daggers … – a childish dream. And yes, those people looked and behaved slightly different than my old folks. To distinguish some differences, can we call that racism? Can I sometimes feel superior, sometimes inferior or sometimes equal? Is acceptation to be outsmarted and outwitted sometimes in a kind way, a disgrace, or a proof of despising men and woman? I not sure of those bold statements.

And before the beginning, there was Mieke, who once had a crush on Jews…

@Mieke
Where can I see your art works, if possible?

@ Jan

I am planning an exhibition in th near future, I'll ask Johannes for your emailadres if that's O.K. with you.

Johannes the matchmaker!

Arabs and more

Jan Thys,
I think Batta has a crush on Arabs because of their natural ambition to dominate the world.

Sander,
No, I'm Noa's German sheperd.

Arnon,
Why do you write: 'Unfortunately I have problems passing as an Arab.'?

Mieke,
Yes, off course, if Jan Thys is cool with that I'll send you his e-mail address.

@Johannes,
I will send you an e-mail with my new e-mail address for Mieke. Thank you Johannes, as I am a kind of assistant myself, I can say you are an excellent assistant.
(Arnon, keep him in honour – good assistants are rare.)

@ Johannes

Yes a german sheppard, that sounds exactly like you. Now we still need to find you a perfect name. Something out of mythologie would suit you .

about my crush

It's through my crush I experienced jews to be normal , human beings. No untermensch and no god's choosen people either

Mieke,
Now that I think of it I am more of a mixed breed: you'll never know what you get.
http://loveyourdog.com/mixedbreeds.html
I am thinking about the name Benji, but this is Noa's decision. I like the idea of Noa whispering 'Benji'.

Zanna

There was no discussion at all about orientalism. From your description orientalism very much sounded as a subcategory of exoticism, but if you deny this – that is perfectly fine with me.
To refresh your mind this whole discussion started with the question how we should take the statement: ‘I have a crush on Arabs.’ (Batta’s statement, who is as we speak celebrating life with her fiancée. That’s just one Arab I assume.)
For historical and cultural reasons I stated that there is a distinction between the statement “I have a crush on Italians” – and the statement “I have a crush on Negroes, native Americans, Arabs, Jews and Gypsies”, to name just a few.
In your opinion this distinction does not exist.
Positive discrimination is a subcategory of discrimination as well isn’t it?
As to the teenybopper thing – there are many interesting things to say about teenyboppers.
Maybe the euro-centric view of the other has become a cage for you?
But then again it is possible to argue that the teenybopper is also a victim of the euro-centric view of the other.

Mieke

Could we please stop this nonsense?

@ Arnon

Because you ask it in such a polite way, I will never make that statement anymore, but could you please tell me where and/or how you define the space where you encounter the other and where you can adjust your vieuws about the other

@ Johannes

Mixed breeds are known to be much more intelligent, but I still think you should be named after a young , blond god.

I was promised I will get a phonecall tomorrow about the event.