8. Presenting the powerful as unable to profit from their efforts to understand the powerless, JanMohamed profoundly qualifies the possibility of communication between different cultures. Of course, in a highly theoretical vein, he does admit that one should still attempt the deep knowledge of another. But even this action is hardly worth undertaking since, remember, it "is possible only if the self can somehow negate or at least severely bracket the values, assumptions, and ideology of his culture" (1988: 84). We are left with individuals who are unable to deeply commune with the ones who most deserve our understanding: the oppressed.

JanMohamed does suggest some exceptions. In "symbolic" literature he states that "[symbolic fiction] offers evidence of a dialectical, mutually modifying relation between self and Other" (1988: 100). Even in this literature, however, the writer is "unable to achieve some `genuine' or `objective' understanding of the Other. . ." (1988: 100).