The Strange & Exotic

When I was younger, I believe I was much more oppositional to positive orientalism then negative orientalism. I find it interesting, but especially at a young age the surrounding culture of the West had much more significance because it was all I knew. Because of this, Eastern culture was always just this "other" that didn't actually matter or mean anything in my life because I live over here in the West, not that East. I began to grow much more open and positive about Eastern culture as I grew older, and began to actually learn through History and such, about other cultures and how actually interesting and unique each and every culture is.

I think this attraction / repulsion to the "exoticness" of other cultues can be simply explained through basic philosophy. Simply being that to us, seperate cultures are always subconsciously (or consciously) noted as being an "other" or an unknown. This is what I like to call the weird, or the strange. Basically it is how we categorize what is unknown or new to us. It is alien, foreign and therefore considered strange. I think that every person has their own personal repulsion / attraction to what is weird, or different. For me when I was very young it used to frighten me, and from that I think it inspired me. I learned to cherish and love what is weird, to me it became a powerful symbol of my individuality at what it means. I think because of this love, and strong attraction I have become very found of the "positive" exotic outlook onto different cultures. I love learning about different cultures, and when I run into foreigners or people of distinct seperate culture I often feel a deep humbleness torwards them, and a strengthened desire to get to know them and reach out and touch more of what I do not know.