Re your tags on that Odyssey post... Speaking as a classicist no longer in academia who hasn't yet seen the film (so take my views with a pinch of salt): I agree that not all publicity is good publicity, but mostly classicists spend their time fighting off accusations of elitism and irrelevance (and fascist tendencies, depending on your circles) and desperately begging for their courses not to be cut. A major filmmaker adapting a seminal text so that everyone is talking about Homer and how it is relevant in the modern world actually IS a good thing, even if the film gets everything wrong. There will be an increase in numbers of students signing up to study Classical Civilisation A Level (where studying one of the Homeric epics is a core component of the course) because of the film and its success and the conversation generated by it, I can almost guarantee it. Parents will hear Christopher Nolan talking about the universal themes of the Odyssey and might be more willing to let their kid do Latin GCSE. Education departments might see Classics as something a bit more current and desirable. I don't know. It might happen. I have one kid this year writing his EPQ (a long essay based project) on why we still care so much about the Trojan War. Very topical!
But on another level, I feel much more comfortable with a terrible interpretation of The Odyssey (if it is, idk, not seen it yet) than I do of, say, Jane Austen for two reasons. Firstly, I'm not convinced we've ever had a good film adaptation of Homer! Like, as classicists we are very used to absolutely terrible, complete dogshit films. Remember when Troy had Menelaus killed off and made Achilles and Patroclus cousins? Mad times! Still watch it every year with my classes and we analyse the choices made. Secondly, I feel very aware that the myths in the Homeric epics have always been moveable from earliest antiquity. There were many epics about the Trojan War which didn't survive and probably interpreted the events and characters totally differently. There was no one correct canon, as it were. The Iliad and Odyssey solidified some things but not totally. Achilles' heel isn't even a thing in the Iliad and that's a major component of 'Achilles lore'. The Tragedians did whatever the hell they liked. Ajax has PTSD. Helen was in Egypt the whole time. Iphigenia was saved from sacrifice. And then we have Virgil! So while I am sure I will have some Opinions on choices Nolan has made in adapting the text of The Odyssey (the book by Homer, whoever they were), I think classicists are pretty good at not being precious about the myths themselves and find continual adaptation and reinterpretation very interesting. Not to mention that reception studies is VERY big in Classics atm and those academics have just got a whole load more new material to work on!
This turned out longer than expected but hope it's helpful! :)
I really appreciate your sharing this at length! And the fact that adaptations actually lead to increased numbers of students signing up for your subjects is wonderful.
I hope it's clear that I also find adaptation and reinterpretation very interesting. And I think that, like classicists, medievalists are professionally experienced in not being precious about our subject... and developing a high tolerance for shitty films. (I do distinctly remember that moment in Troy.) I just wish that there were more/any popular medieval-ish films interested in saying things other than: Look at How Shitty Everything Was!!! For instance, I think that the idea of a film about the 1381 uprising is really interesting. But the film that will be released later this year is about a fictitious version of medieval England in which The King Is The Law, not the (more interesting!) reality in which late medieval peasants were well-educated enough about the law to protest the ways in which they were being oppressed by its use and misuse. The oppression and the outrage were real! And they took place in a system of extensive bureaucracy, not a system of The King Does Whatever. This turned into a specific tangent, but it's illustrative of the patterns that too often result in me facing classrooms of students resentful that some bitch (me) is teaching a version of medieval history that has nothing to do with their latest video game. That's not universal, of course. But I do feel that it makes my job harder.
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