Edward Said

There’s a lovely tribute by Steven Johnson on his Blog.

“I think it’s worth saying something here that I’ve said about Said for more than ten years now: on his best days, he was the most charismatic man I’ve ever met in my life — handsome, stylish, impossibly articulate, and surprisingly willing to take a joke at his own expense. (I used to tease him about his being indirectly responsible for unleashing [Judith] Butler on the world.) I remember vividly one early spring afternoon, sitting through a seminar he was teaching on public intellectuals, in a room overlooking the Columbia campus and the sun setting over Riverside Park, and thinking to myself: there’s literally nowhere else I’d rather be right now. I’m sure there are thousands of his students out there sifting through similar memories today.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to be remembered like that.