While I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of Emily Wilson's excruciating review of The Odyssey, I don't appreciate how she puts down what was an insane amount of antiblackness down to "The race-neutral casting of Nolan’s Odyssey was inevitably deplored in some quarters."
That's it?
All those beautiful words to validly tear apart everything else, including how she understands what the Black Best Friend is as a trope, and you weren't willing to say anything else about just how bad Black people were/are treated during production as well as on screen? Potentially on purpose, for attention? As another one of Nolan's critiqueable decisions in this creation process? You recognize the presence of racism in all of this, but weren't willing to even say the word? Just "inevitably deplored". Girl. Understatement.
One day we will treat racism as the serious part of media comprehension that it is. Disappointing, subtle dodge from an author otherwise so eloquent in her critique. But at the same time, I unfortunately can't really expect that sort of thing from white writers, even ones that lean progressive. At least she capitalized Black. 8.5/10.























