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Saara El-Arifi



Saara El-Arifi wrote Cleopatra. Now I'm not one to chase Cleo, though I have quite enjoyed Shakespeare's Cleopatra and Antony. I have read some history on her, and I do like things set in Egypt. I like Hatshepsut after going to the Met Museum, and read the wonderful book by Kara Cooney. I loved her book on what we know from archaeology, and what we can speculate wisely about based on an expert, and what we don't know. I felt her book had epistemic character, and telling the truth and being epistemically transparent is important to me now.

I even like Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, looking at the old monuments along the river. I know I'm casting a wide net, too wide of a net, but it's become a category in my head. 

I want to get that all out into the world so I don't force it on people in the book club. I'm blasting through this book because the book club is coming up soon, and I'm determined to go to a black and brown women's book club in person, even though I'm a white guy. Not because I feel like my perspective is important, because I think their perspective is important. And this book will be interesting in reaching for imaginary understandings, based on human speculation in a novel. I like all the kinds of knowledge, not just nuts and bolts history, not just novel imaginations. 

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