when Talal Asad says "unnecessary praise," he meant it. the introducer attempts to assimilate him into some predetermined framework that would put him in the company of certian thinkers through the telling use of certain words ("post-colonial" for example), that somehow detracts from his scholarship and disfigures him into something manageable, controllable, reducible... that of course is very often what "disciples" do; they just can't become masters themselves and therefore think that reducing the master to their own dimensions adds to their own greatness. no wonder Asad thinks the encomium sounds so much like an obituary...

Was this lecture published as a paper? Would anyone know/help with this? Many thanks.

Is this available as an article?