Michael Dorfman WHY SAID Two emigrants meet. - Hello, old man. How are you? - Fine. — Are you settled? Have you learned the language? - Yes, I say, sort of. - And they understand? - Yes, will they understand! A brilliant methodology for analyzing what and how these same “they”—Western people—understand was proposed in his famous book “Orientalism” by Edward Said, a cultural researcher and literary critic, professor at Columbia University, a native of Jerusalem and a Palestinian refugee.