Arabian Nights

My absolute favorite childhood movie is, or, was Aladdin. The mysterious opening scene and song were favorites and always caught my attention whether I was watching the movie on my own or more recently, with kids that I was babysitting. Only in the past few years have I realized the image and stereotypes that just this first song have played into, and especially how bad that is as the movie was predominantly created for Western viewers. In the first few lines the narrator sings 

Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense
And the heat is intense
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home

In just the first verse the narrator paints a picture of an almost unimaginable place, and the animated imagery is inciting which I guess is similar to the stereotypical seduction that is tied with places like Egypt, China, Morocco, Thailand, etc. Along with this seducing imagery, the story is supported with a soundtrack of mystical drumbeats that are seriously unfamiliar to the typical genres of music listened to by most of the Western culture. Worst of all in setting up this magical scene for children and families to view, the narrator labels his own land "barbaric" much in the same self-deprecating way that Chacko in God of Small Things perpetuates his culture and compares it to the culture he studied in at Oxford. 

I hate to connect everything back to The Stranger, but it's hard not to see the Orientalism that takes place in that novel as well. The Arabs that follow Meursault and his friends to the beach are characterized as lower-class than Meursault, as he was a Frenchman by blood. The setting of the novel also seems stuck in time and very Casablanca-esque. Something that I've noticed in many stories about Western people traveling to Asia or Africa, is that they are always in search of something they can't seem to find at home. For Margaret Kochamma in God of Small Things Chacko is the "spice" that she needs in her bland, white-washed English life. For Humphrey Bogart's character in Casablanca, the thing that he finds in Morroco isn't a native, complex woman, but another European looking girl from his past. 

Perhaps ignorance plays a role in why Orientalism is still prevalent today, but I also think that in a big way the Western world has lost its sense mystery or magic, and seeks to keep it alive through characters and stories that they have no right to tell. I'm really interested in learning more about this topic as it's clear that there are many layers to it, but I can't lie, as horribly as this movie maintains the ideas of Edward Said and Orientalism, the Genie in Aladdin will always be one of my favorite Disney characters.