Christopher Nolan’s Favorite Translator Absolutely Hated His Odyssey

Christopher Nolan spent the press cycle for The Odyssey hyping up Emily Wilson’s translation, and when she finally saw the film, she absolutely hated it. “I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters,” Wilson wrote in the London Review of Books. “But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality.” To understand why people like Wilson’s more “modern” version, just compare her opening line to Robert Fagles’. Fagles wrote, “Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns.” Wilson’s version opens, “Tell me about a complicated man.” Nolan apparently loves that line and quoted “Tell me about a complicated man” on The Odyssey publicity trail. Welp, Wilson’s review is titled “An Uncomplicated Man.” “I was humbled to learn that Nolan has read at least the first line of my translation of The Odyssey,” she said. “But I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.” Her article gives Nolan a pass for removing most of the Gods, but takes him to task for whittling Odysseus down, mostly to make him more likable to modern audiences. To be f...