No disagreement there, but as predicted this is not a thread about the D&D books
Oriental Adventures but rather the word “Oriental”.
This thread will live longer in the General category. Otherwise, the thread will deviate from the Dire Bare’s original post, and Morrus will swoop in with red ink and close thread as repetitive....
see the thread about the removal of the Community episode for example.
Edward Said in his 1978 book Orientalism, influenced my thinking. The book holds up, a very interesting read.
en.m.wikipedia.org
The term “Orient” essentially meant
East of Europe and was applied to Persia, Armenia, Central Asia....and then morphed into a synonym of Asia.
It is not a term of precision. Oriental, if used as a descriptive term: essentially means mystical, strange, foreign and by implication....not rational...in the same way that a charismatic relationship with the Tetragrammaton in Abrahamic religions is characterized as a direct connection to the divine, and not inferred by reason.
As a descriptor, it has some baggage, and some object to it’s usage.
Personally, a vague term, that has a complicated history, lacks a universal definition, is not very descriptive, and is offensive to some, is probably best avoided.
This is also, only tangentially applicable to D&D.
To be fair, a group of people are asking a particular book seller to stop selling digital copies of a book that has been out of print, physically, for years.
This is akin to a group asking Walmart to stop, or start selling D&D products.....more a fit for the
General RPG Forum, in my singular opinion.