Edward Said reigned as the poster child for public intellectuals, having made early waves with his breakout 1978 tract, Orientalism. Just a few weeks after the 20th anniversary of his death from leukemia at the age of 67, his name is being invoked again on all sides of the news cycle. His criticism of both Israel and Arab countries made him a controversial figure in his own time, and served as a bellwether for one of the guiding principles of his life: He lived for counterpoint, tracing his literary theory of contrapuntalism to his love for classical music. He was born in Palestine but grew up in Cairo and eventually settled in New York after an Ivy League education, and was simultaneously at home everywhere and nowhere. For Said, home itself was a polyphonic construct.
It was precisely because of this that he was able to achieve the level of insight into western culture that he did, through criticism that often—as we see in the works below—included classical music.
