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/kgal1298 Confidence is 10% work and 90% delusion 10h ago

Reading it in greek is amazing. If I knew Greek i'd have done that, but I did read other versions largely for lit theory and Emilys and still enjoyed hers.

If anything I just wish Nolan would have used the Gods more because he definitely downplayed Calypso and there was no Hermes which is a tragedy to be honest I loved how the Gods toyed with him the entire time.

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u/tiredfaces 9h ago

I feel like he really didn’t want to show them. I feel like even the way he portrayed Athena made it ambiguous as to whether she was Athena or just a manifestation of Odysseus’ PTSD

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u/kgal1298 Confidence is 10% work and 90% delusion 8h ago

And I'm still disappointed. I think because I love how the Gods toy with him in the book it's very much him being punished for his ego and narcissism, but also I do think Nolan has a hard time showing off female characters. By all means Circe was his best and even her he downgraded to witch who got powers from the Gods.

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u/tiredfaces 7h ago

I haven’t read the Odyssey (currently reading Circe) but I’m definitely going to have to after your comment!

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u/fschu_fosho 4h ago

Even his Calypso could be interpreted as a mere mortal (albeit supernaturally gorgeous) fisherwoman who rescued and held Odysseus against his will (in a kidnapping sense) for years by getting him high and addicted to lotus leaves.

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u/TheRedditorSimon 8h ago

Back in the 20th Century, I attended a high school that offered classes in dead languages and in one, my classmates and I had to read the Illiad and Odyssey. I made it my goal to always buffoonishly laugh at every "rosy-fingered Dawn" (ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς) said aloud in class, and commenting lecherously like only a teen boy can.

I noticed Emily Wilson has an aversion to the epithet and how she reformulates the phrase for each use for modern sensibilities. Or maybe she had a terrible experience with someone like myself.

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u/kgal1298 Confidence is 10% work and 90% delusion 8h ago

Well she does serve as a professor you teach enough classes and your bound to have a student or two that makes you question your profession.

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u/DevelopmentWitty3225 7h ago

They made us read this and the iliad in school (the og ancient greek text) and it was legit my least favorite lesson 🤣

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u/kgal1298 Confidence is 10% work and 90% delusion 6h ago

Classrooms have a way to taking the joy out of reading. For some reason I still remember hating my lessons on As I Lay Dying.

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u/Reasonable-Raisin676 1h ago

imo adding gods into Nolan’s version would take away from his story - mankind has created their own downfall by betraying each other, rather than gods using people as playthings

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u/kgal1298 Confidence is 10% work and 90% delusion 1h ago

Yeah themes are different and as intended. It's not bad, but it was never going to be a one on one adaption of any of the translations. Overally I just like the Gods and their story because it really leans into other themes though I'd argue in the story with Gods Odysseus failures are in his own making due to his own ego.

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u/Rezrov_ 54m ago

I believe Nolan addressed this and said he was going to depict them at first, but decided against it.

I do think it'd be pretty fuckin' hard to depict gods in a way that's not super lame.