SPOILERS: Go See the Movie FIRST!!!!
When you see a film based on a book, you get the rare opportunity to peek inside the head of a specific reader, namely the director. Whatever else, we now know how Christopher Nolan reads Homer’s THE ODYSSEY.
So let’s dig in!
This episode will give you some background: What are “the sea people”? Did people in the “Bronze Age” know they were in the Bronze Age? Did Helen really talk about trade routes during dinners with out-of-town guests?
And the women…we gotta talk about the women.
We look at the Sirens, Helen, Calypso, Circe, Athena, Melantho, and Penelope, and for each, we tell you how they are described in the poem and what Nolan kept in, took out…and in some cases, just 100% invented.
We’ll also pinpoint some powerful female characters who got tossed overboard and didn’t even make it into the movie.
Maybe at the end of the day, the movie says more (than anything else) about the wealthy, powerful director who was lucky enough to make his dream version of THE ODYSSEY. And yet, it gives us an excuse to talk about Homer--again! We get to talk about odysseys--again! This whole thing is trending! How often does that happen???
Along the way, Sonja surprisingly says something complimentary about Emerald Fennell, and Vanessa tries to picture an ad for Viking Cruises on PBS.
REFERENCES:
Treat yourself to this great conversation with the legendary classics scholar, Mary Beard as she offers her wisdom on what was lost in Nolan’s version of the poem.
Emily Hauser’s Guardian Review of Nolan’s film is really insightful, and she’s our next guest on In Walks a Woman where she’ll talk about her book PENELOPE’S BONES and she’ll discuss the movie.
We have several episodes that are about the Odyssey or related to the Odyssey. Below are links to the episodes on Spotify. If you’re on another platform, note the episode number, and you should be able to find it pretty easily.
Episode 1. Do Heroes Make Good Husbands?: The Case of Penelope and Two Decades of No Sex
Episode 2. Penelope in Fact and in Fiction
Episode 3. What Does THE RETURN Get Right, or Wrong About Penelope and Odysseus?
Episode 4. Can Witches Have Odysseys? The Case of Circe in Home and Madeline Miller
Episode 6. Helpers & Monsters: Women Making THE ODYSSEY Possible
Episode 7. The Dark Side of the Hero: Margaret Atwood’s THE PENELOPIAD
Episode 8. Are Older Women Allowed to Have Odysseys? The Case of Janie Crawford in Zora Neale Hurston’s THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD
Episode 9. Can a Lowly Governess Have an Odyssey? The Case of Charlotte Bronte’s JANE EYRE
