How interesting it is to compare pre-oil and post-oil discovery memoir cultures; a route to really understand how oil as a commodity not only transforms social structures in a pre- and post-oil times, but revealing of the primary epistemologies and ethnographic methodologies that has emerged in these two distinct eras of history pre- and post-oil discovery.

Who writes memoirs on the UAE, or particular emirate-regions, and how, are questions that may enjoy a comparative pre-and post-oil literature study fruitful to the documentation of variant and diverse memoir cultures in and of the UAE. Examining literature written before and after the manifestations of oil as a primary energy source is a point of inquiry emblematic of shifts in themes, concerns, and literary forms.

After writing Oil Memoir-ing in a Post-Oil World, Memoir Culture and New Meanings of State-Space,“The Sands of Oman” is an immediate addition to my reading list.