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Can you please point out to me where, exactly, he finishes on an acknowledgement of his own biases? His analysis is based on a 3-week excursion around various p

Can you please point out to me where, exactly, he finishes on an acknowledgement of his own biases? His analysis is based on a 3-week excursion around various parts of the country, with little to no effort to understand any historical context for what he critiques. How about even a cursory talk about the historical context? Colonialism, the politics of development, the political economy of tourism, anything for that matter. Mark talks about how emotionally overwhelming travel is, he doesn't talk about how, if he had stayed there longer or even done some basic wikipedia research, perhaps he wouldn't jump to so many base conclusions. Instead, we are left with a poetic bog post laced with comments like this one: "Indian culture itself is quite disorienting." Or this little gem: "There’s no single sentence for India. The place is a fucking mess." This doesn't even make sense. How can there be no single sentence for India, and then GIVE A SINGLE SENTENCE FOR INDIA? Yeah, it's a fucking mess for a well-off Internet blogger. It's a fucking mess because Mother Theresa can't save the Indians from themselves, "And it’s just as well, Mother Teresa couldn’t save this society from itself." Critical development studies has been fighting this kind of arrogance for a long time. And to be fair, I respect this author's work a lot more than most lifestyle blogs. I just have a low tolerance for generalizations like this one. Does that sound like nonsense to you?

vacri 14y ago
The reference to shutting out the congitive dissonance with his sunglasses and ipod is a tacit statement recognising that he is not of this place. If you don't see that in his writing, there's a lot in that essay you will have missed. A much clearer example of reporting on his own biases is when he reports on the email from his mother. How can there be no single sentence for India, and then GIVE A SINGLE SENTENCE FOR INDIA? Oh, for fuck's sake. You're choosing to be offended. He didn't give a single sentence, he wrote a four thousand word essay on it. An essay in which he covers a lot of variations in the parts of the culture he saw. Really, you're choosing to be offended. Why should he report on the colonialism of India in an essay about his personal experiences; why is the essay bereft of value because of that? And despite your claims that he doesn't talk about the political economy of tourism, he does do that in the essay. He talks of the spiritual tourism, and his experiences and opinions of it. Yeah, it's a fucking mess for a well-off Internet blogger. And traveller to 40 countries, so a fair bit more experienced in other cultures than most. You're committing exactly the same sins of omission as you're accusing him of making, in order to reframe your argument so that it benefits you.
- jeisenberg 14y ago
  Fair enough. This was a comment to a short essay. I'll continue to hold my beliefs, and you'll continue to have yours, as these forums typically work.

vacri 14y ago

The reference to shutting out the congitive dissonance with his sunglasses and ipod is a tacit statement recognising that he is not of this place. If you don't see that in his writing, there's a lot in that essay you will have missed. A much clearer example of reporting on his own biases is when he reports on the email from his mother. How can there be no single sentence for India, and then GIVE A SINGLE SENTENCE FOR INDIA? Oh, for fuck's sake. You're choosing to be offended. He didn't give a single sentence, he wrote a four thousand word essay on it. An essay in which he covers a lot of variations in the parts of the culture he saw. Really, you're choosing to be offended. Why should he report on the colonialism of India in an essay about his personal experiences; why is the essay bereft of value because of that? And despite your claims that he doesn't talk about the political economy of tourism, he does do that in the essay. He talks of the spiritual tourism, and his experiences and opinions of it. Yeah, it's a fucking mess for a well-off Internet blogger. And traveller to 40 countries, so a fair bit more experienced in other cultures than most. You're committing exactly the same sins of omission as you're accusing him of making, in order to reframe your argument so that it benefits you.

jeisenberg 14y ago
Fair enough. This was a comment to a short essay. I'll continue to hold my beliefs, and you'll continue to have yours, as these forums typically work.