reasonable qualIfications o it would be wrong to conclude that the Orient was essentially an idea, or a creation with no corresponding reality ideas, cultures, and histories cannot seriously be understood or studied without their force or more precisely their configurations of power One ought never to assume that the structure of Orientalism is nothing more than a structure of lies or of myths 1010 reasonable qualifications  it would be wrong to conclude that the Orient was essentially an idea, or a creation with no corresponding reality.  ideas, cultures, and histories cannot seriously be understood or studied without their force, or more precisely their configurations of power  One ought never to assume that the structure of Orientalism is nothing more than a structure of lies or of myths