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Not Dead But Sleeping
Prompted by the 2011 Egyptian uprising, this book-length essay on the cultural politics of sleep by writer and editor Anna Della Subin takes as its starting point Tawfiq al-Hakim’s 1933 play The People of the Cave. Based on the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, which also appears in the Qur’an, the play tells the story of three Christian men and a dog who awaken in a cave after fleeing from persecution by their pagan king. Upon venturing out, the men discover that three hundred years have passed, and must come to terms with a transformed world. Though hailed in literary circles as a landmark in Egyptian drama, the play flopped with audiences, some of whom fell asleep.
Published as part of Triple Canopy’s Speculations issue, Subin’s essay examines The People of the Cave and the myth that inspired it, tracing the origins and incarnations of the sleepers, a story told and retold at moments of political awakening, from postrevolutionary America to contemporary Egypt. Not Dead But Sleeping considers the myth’s speculative uses and revolutionary potential, poetically pushing back against Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous dictum, “There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution.”
Anna Della Subin writes for publications such as the London Review of Books, the New York Times, and the White Review, among others. She is a contributing editor at Bidoun.
Published as part of Triple Canopy’s Speculations issue, Subin’s essay examines The People of the Cave and the myth that inspired it, tracing the origins and incarnations of the sleepers, a story told and retold at moments of political awakening, from postrevolutionary America to contemporary Egypt. Not Dead But Sleeping considers the myth’s speculative uses and revolutionary potential, poetically pushing back against Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous dictum, “There is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution.”
Anna Della Subin writes for publications such as the London Review of Books, the New York Times, and the White Review, among others. She is a contributing editor at Bidoun.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 16, 2016
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About the author
Anna Della Subin
5 books25 followersAnna Della Subin writes about sleepwalkers, grave worship, imperial Ethiopian court etiquette, visions of the flood, thirteenth-century oculists, occultists, cricket, ritualized mutiny, Dr. Death's childhood, dreams of 9/11, the politics of the afterlife, 300-year naps.
She is a Senior Editor at Bidoun, the award-winning publishing and curatorial initiative focused on the Middle East and its diasporas. Anna Della studied philosophy and classics at the University of Chicago and the history of religion at Harvard Divinity School.
Accidental Gods, a history of men inadvertently turned into deities, is forthcoming from Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt in the US and Granta in the UK.
She is a Senior Editor at Bidoun, the award-winning publishing and curatorial initiative focused on the Middle East and its diasporas. Anna Della studied philosophy and classics at the University of Chicago and the history of religion at Harvard Divinity School.
Accidental Gods, a history of men inadvertently turned into deities, is forthcoming from Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt in the US and Granta in the UK.
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April 12, 2024That was ... interesting
Really good writing, though I wasn't fully familiar with the context to get some of the deeper meanings I think.
> They slept the sleep of Endymion, but the moonlight, unrequited in her love, could not reach them
Really good writing, though I wasn't fully familiar with the context to get some of the deeper meanings I think.
> They slept the sleep of Endymion, but the moonlight, unrequited in her love, could not reach them
May 25, 2019
Not my normal cup of tea but a fine cup indeed
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews