Beginnings

From one of the world's most beloved and outspoken public intellectuals comes an illuminating book on the nature of criticism

"Readers will be surprised, stimulated, instructed, impressed."―The New Yorker

“What is a beginning? What must one do in order to begin? What is special about beginning as an activity or a moment or a place?”

So begins Beginnings, a scintillating work of criticism by Edward W. Said, author of Orientalism, The Question of Palestine, and other seminal works, and one of the most lauded public intellectuals of our time. Tracing humankind’s diverse understandings of what it means to begin throughout history, Said argues that “beginning” is itself a method, the first step in the creation of meaning. It’s what sparks a break from… Keep Reading