{"id":835180,"date":"2026-07-30T04:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835180\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T04:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T04:52:09","slug":"joyce-carol-oates-defends-christopher-nolans-odyssey-against-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835180\/","title":{"rendered":"Joyce Carol Oates Defends Christopher Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Against Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEmily Wilson<\/a>, Joyce Carol Oates would like a word.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe former, who is responsible for what is probably the most popular translation of\u00a0The Odyssey<\/a>,\u00a0was deeply critical of Christopher Nolan<\/a>\u2018s film in a recent piece<\/a> she wrote for the London Review of Books. Wilson summed up her feelings with, \u201cI would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOates, who is no literary slouch herself, took to social media to respond. She did not hold back.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHer tone of dismissal & haughty superiority strike a sour note,\u201d wrote Oates, who eschewed initial caps in each subsequent sentence. \u201crather than disagreeing with interpretations of Homer<\/a> in a collegial manner, this person, who has benefited enormously from Nolan\u2019s film, speaks in the crude language of MAGA folks attacking someone with ideas that differ from hers. within the world of translators this seems all the more surprising since all translations are, presumably, subjective & not equivalent to the original text. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOates is likely best known in pop-culture circles as the author of Blonde and We Were Mulvaneys, both of which were made into films. In literary circles she\u2019s considered one of America\u2019s finest writers. She has won the National Book Award, the O. Henry Award (twice) and been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize four times. Maybe that\u2019s why she seemed so keen to defend Nolan\u2019s right to author his version of Homer\u2019s epic poem. <\/p>\n

\n\tOates said she sees \u201cno reason why Nolan, or anyone else, should not re-imagine\/re-envision a classical hero (sic) through the prism of his own invention. Homer\u2019s \u201cnoble\u201d Odysseus does not really seem so noble to contemporary readers who are likely to think of, for instance, [My Lai massacre officer] Lt. William Calley in such lines: \u201cFrom Ilion I was borne by a wind toward the Kikones\u2013\/ To Ismaros. There I laid waste the city and killed the men.\/ After dragging their wives from the city\u2013with a great deal of booty as well\u2013\/ We divided it up\u2026\u201d (Book 9, Mendelsohn translation) No remorse here, just swaggering male braggadocio typical of \u201cnoble Odysseus\u201d\u2013\u201cOdysseus, that cunning man\u201d; but still, in Nolan\u2019s vision, even such a man is capable of conscience & remorse eventually. in the 1997 [film] adaptation it is pride that Odysseus must overcome; in Nolan\u2019s version, it is conscience \u2014 (to a degree).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe famed author then turned her attention to Wilson\u2019s sphere of expertise, recommending another translation of The Odyssey. She also used the occasion to respond to critics who say the film\u2019s dialogue is too modern.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe most elegant translation of The Odyssey is by Daniel Mendelsohn; it is \u2018poetic,\u2019 each word chosen with care, precision; it is beautiful, melodic but if that translation had been used in Nolan\u2019s film the charges would not be that the language is banal or boring but rather that the language is too elevated, \u2018poetic.\u2019 I do not think that Nolan\u2019s film will be considered a great classic but really, it seems that whatever Nolan did, it would disappoint hordes of people. most moviemakers\/creators just try the best they can\u2013it seems odd that this director has drawn such angry criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOates noted that such criticism \u201cis chilling, dampening for any creative artist. to attack a creative artist as if he were a criminal, had done something to harm, hurt, kill\u2013this is alarming. if you hate a movie, fine\u2013no need to recommend it. no one expects every work of art to be a classic, perfect\u2026rage seems just weirdly inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe went on to say that, while she didn\u2019t think this year\u2019s adaptation would be considered a classic, she would \u201chighly recommend both Nolan\u2019s film & the 1997 miniseries<\/a> 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. (NB: the 1997 adaptation includes Irene Papas as Odysseus\u2019s mother & Isabella Rossellini as a radiant Athena.)\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emily Wilson, Joyce Carol Oates would like a word. The former, who is responsible for what is probably…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,101938,270261,75,135823,29185],"class_list":["post-835180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-emily-wilson","tag-entertainment","tag-homer","tag-the-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}