Joyce Carol Oates Defends ‘Odyssey’ Against Translator’s Viral Slam: “Crude Language of MAGA Folks”
The literary debate over Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey is still not over. On Wednesday, author Joyce Carol Oates defended the hit film following...
Key points
- The literary debate over Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey is still not over.
- On Wednesday, author Joyce Carol Oates defended the hit film following acclaimed translator Emily Wilson’s viral review slamming the movie.
- “One would expect a translator, of all people, beholden to a text, in service to a text, to be just a wee bit more thoughtful & respectful of others who are acting in good faith just as (she would claim) she is.” Related Stories Oates was responding to a commenter who had written, “This is tough because on one hand I deeply respect Wilson as a classicist and enjoy her translation of The Odyssey, but on the other this review is grounded in such bad faith and filled with outrageous takes that make me feel like she would’ve been hostile to any adaptation.” In general, Oates said she liked Nolan’s film: “[I] highly recommend both Nolan’s film and the 1997 miniseries co-produced by Francis Coppola.
- The adaptations are notably different: one American, with the brooding middle-aged-boy-hero Matt Damon; the other very Mediterranean, with charismatic Armand Assante who more naturally inhabits the role … no reason why Nolan, or anyone else, should not re-imagine/re-envision a classical hero through the prism of his own invention.” Wilson is an acclaimed translator of Homer’s epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, and the opening line of the latter (“Tell me about a complicated man”) was previously cited by Nolan.
What happened
The literary debate over Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey is still not over. On Wednesday, author Joyce Carol Oates defended the hit film following acclaimed translator Emily Wilson’s viral review slamming the movie. “One would expect a translator, of all people, beholden to a text, in service to a text, to be just a wee bit more thoughtful & respectful of others who are acting in good faith just as (she would claim) she is.” Related Stories Oates was responding to a commenter who had written, “This is tough because on one hand I deeply respect Wilson as a classicist and enjoy her translation of The Odyssey, but on the other this review is grounded in such bad faith and filled with outrageous takes that make me feel like she would’ve been hostile to any adaptation.” In general, Oates said she liked Nolan’s film: “[I] highly recommend both Nolan’s film and the 1997 miniseries co-produced by Francis Coppola. The adaptations are notably different: one American, with the brooding middle-aged-boy-hero Matt Damon; the other very Mediterranean, with charismatic Armand Assante who more naturally inhabits the role … no reason why Nolan, or anyone else, should not re-imagine/re-envision a...