Summary
Edward Said was a man, who, in his own words, lived two quite separate lives. First there was the scholar and literary critic of Columbia University, and then there was the fierce critic of American and Israeli policies in the Middle East. In the United States he was an academic superstar, but his views - on Palestine in particular - made him an intensely divisive figure. He died of leukaemia in 2003.
In Great Lives, Alexei Sayle explains to Matthew Parris why Edward Said, a man he met twice and described as "very noble and fiercely intelligent", inspired him. Edward Said once described the Palestinians as 'the victims of the victims'. This eloquence, on a subject that in America was taboo, still impresses Alexei Sayle today.
Producer: Toby Field.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
| 0:06.0 | What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are? |
| 0:10.0 | I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas. |
| 0:16.4 | Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth. |
| 0:23.0 | Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003. |
| 0:27.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.0 | Thank you for downloading this great lives podcast from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:34.0 | For more information and details of other podcasts just visit BBC. |
| 0:38.0 | co.uk. |
| 0:41.0 | Radio 4. |
| 0:42.0 | The Middle East seems an unending source of conflict. A corrosive interplay of |
| 0:47.0 | religion, race, culture, war, fear and politics makes the region and its issues |
| 0:52.3 | one of the touchiest subjects in modern history. |
| 0:55.0 | It seems almost impossible to treat the subject dispassionately, |
| 0:59.0 | or at least in a way all sides will accept as dispassionate. You can try and as often as not end up satisfying nobody. |
| 1:07.0 | Or you can attach yourself passionately to a cause and arouse deep and even bitter distrust amongst its opponents. |
| 1:14.0 | A man who took this latter course who waded in, |
| 1:18.0 | yet did so without disengaging his intellect, |
| 1:21.0 | is the subject of today's great lives. |
| 1:24.0 | Edward Saeed was a writer, thinker, teacher and academic whose analysis was almost always provocative, |
| 1:31.0 | but never more so than on Palestine. |
| 1:35.0 | They are entitled to go to Israel or Palestine, as I call it, |
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