Academic black humor

From Robert J. C. Young, White Mythologies 2nd ed.  p. 1

"The sunlight sinks over the golden buildings that tumble along the Malecon as it sweeps along the shoreline into La Habana Vieja. Sitting on the concrete wall, I stare out into the sea, towards Miami, thinking of the generations that have sailed into this harbor - the Spanish conquistadors, the shiploads of slaves from West Africa, British buccaneers arriving to capture the island in 1762, US troops arriving in 1898, US troops arriving in two thousand and... ? Cette implacable blancher: wave after wave of white conquerors have rolled in on the surf, wanting this island, coveted object of imperial desire."

1. The choice of examples, I think, are deliberate. Especially the double mentioning of US troops arriving.
2. "wave after wave of white conquerors" --> think about the color of big waves: they are white!!! That made me laugh when I was reading this on a bench in UCSD...
3. I wanna learn to write poetically!!!

This book questions the writing of history from a white perspective. I'm only in the intro, and the discussion on the limits of Classical Marxism fascinates me. It led me to explore Marxism not only as a stem to the contemporary Chinese communism, but as a historical (meta-)narrative and economic worldview. I look forward particularly to this book's critique of Fredric Jameson. Many musicologists depend on dearly on the term "postmodernism", and define it according to Jameson. Leo Ou-fan Lee has already pointed out his discomfort in Jameson's Westro-centric viewpoint that cannot fit modern Chinese literature. Yet, none of the literature I read, mostly musicological, have ever mentioned Young. Let me go for it!

This book opened up the whole field of post-colonialism, and yes, it is a monumental volume.