Uses of Aesthetics: After Orientalism

Let me begin with a recent event-an exchange between two Nobel Prize-winning novelists: Kenzaburo Oe of Japan and Claude Simon of France. It began when be refused to attend a conference in France in 1995 as a protest against nuclear testing by France. In response, Claude Simon wrote a letter to Oe, which was published in Le Monde on 21 September 1995. Neither be's antagonism nor Simon's defense was particularly new in their respective positions. Simon recalled his experiences during the German occupation of World War II and insisted that nuclear weapons and tests were necessary for France to prevent future invasions. What was remarkable, however, was that he invoked Japan's past-its invasion of Asia-to refute Oe. Furthermore, making this argument, Simon totally omitted reference to France's own past, to its colonization of many regions of the world before World War II, and especially to the fact that the nuclear testing took place near a particular island of the South Pacific that is a vestige of its colonial past. But even more noteworthy was a twist in his reasoning: At the