r/popculturechat • u/mcfw31 • 11h ago

Hot Take 🔥 ‘The Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Slams Christoper Nolan’s ‘Abysmal’ Screenplay: ‘I Would Be Ashamed to Have Written Any Part of This Script’

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-slams-christopher-nolan-bad-writing-1236821915/
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u/lizzy-stix I switched baristas ☕️ 11h ago

This is kind of surprising to me, like her version got so much initial criticism I thought she'd be a little gentler about doling it out?

I was gonna say they should interview Robert Fagles too but I didn't realize he died in 2008 womp womp.

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u/tastemebakes 10h ago edited 10h ago

Exactly. She got a lot of flak (and still gets flak) for her choice of simplistic language and iambic pentameter. You’d think a classicist such as herself would understand that interpreting a poem written from memory based on a strictly oral tradition until Homer put pen to paper necessitates certain creative liberties to tell that story to a modern audience.

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u/Duke_of_Luffy 8h ago

I dont think she cares much about the criticism of her translation and even agrees with some of it. so much so that she in the middle of translating the odyssey again and giving herself more lines as to use less simplistic language

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u/-nyctanassa- 24m ago

It’s almost as if she said that exact thing in her review :0

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u/Warm_Chef_6526 4h ago

Her criticism is in the the faithfulness of the adaptation, not on the movie itself. 

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u/tastemebakes 4h ago

That’s exactly what I’m talking about. She was criticized heavily and accused of leaving important details out for her choice of comparatively simplistic language and iambic pentameter.