Art Is As Useful As Bread.

I Have A Recurring Fantasy That One More Article Has Been Added To The Bill Of Rights: The Right To Free Access To Imagination.

What Dazzles Us In Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra Are Not The Alluring Mythologies About The Evasive Queen, But The Astonishing If Rare Historical Facts That Schiff Has Meticulously And Lovingly Excavated. Schiff Offers Not Just Cleopatra's Story But The Story Of An Amazing Era, One That Has Vanished But Still Affects Us, Questioning The Way We Look At Myth, History, And Ourselves.

Only Curiosity About The Fate Of Others, The Ability To Put Ourselves In Their Shoes, And The Will To Enter Their World Through The Magic Of Imagination, Creates This Shock Of Recognition. Without This Empathy There Can Be No Genuine Dialogue, And We As Individuals And Nations Will Remain Isolated And Alien, Segregated And Fragmented.

Every Fairy Tale Offers The Potential To Surpass Present Limits, So In A Sense The Fairy Tale Offers You Freedoms That Reality Denies.

Art Is As Useful As Bread.