‘Odyssey’ translator Emily Wilson: Nolan should've hired a screenwriter

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Dave Davies** (0:14)
This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. Christopher Nolan's new film, The Odyssey, has earned critical praise and big box office returns. This retelling of the classic story from ancient Greece features plenty of recognized stars, and it's also burnished the reputation of an established star in the world of classical scholarship. That's our guest today, Emily Wilson. In 2017, Wilson published her own translation of The Odyssey, a task that took six years to complete and had quite an impact. Wilson was the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English, though that's not the first thing she'd want you to know about her work. Her translation was widely hailed in reviews for its vibrant language and faithfulness to the original Greek text attributed to the poet Homer. Her translation sold thousands of copies and was added to high school and college curricula across the country.
Wilson was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship and, after she followed with the translation of The Iliad, a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Christopher Nolan has cited her translation in discussing his approach to the character of Odysseus in his new film.
In a review, Wilson called Nolan's film abysmally written and lacking in psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth, though she said it's still an event to celebrate because it's getting more people into theaters and interested in the classics. Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies and chair of the Classics Department at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of several books, including a new one coming out in September. It's a collection of essays introducing readers to the literature of ancient Greece and Rome and the challenges of translation, and exploring some modern themes, such as parallels between the hip hop of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion and the comedies of Aristophanes in 5th century Athens. The book is titled Crossing the Wine Dark Sea. Emily Wilson, welcome to Fresh Air.

**Emily Wilson** (2:09)
Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for your zinniya in having me.

**Dave Davies** (2:13)
Zinniya, right.

**Emily Wilson** (2:14)
Yes, hospitality.

**Dave Davies** (2:16)
I thought we would begin just because a lot of people know something about The Odyssey, but may not have thought about it in a long time. Just give us a quick summary of the plot. What is the story about?

**Emily Wilson** (2:27)
The story is set in the aftermath of the mythical Trojan War, and it centers on the mythical Greek hero from Ithaca, Odysseus, and the final sequence of his very long extended journey home. In Greek, there's a word, Nostos, from which we get nostalgia, a story about a journey home from war. The Odyssey traces the story of how Odysseus escapes from the island of Calypso, a goddess with whom he's been spending the past seven years.
Finally, after many misadventures, makes it back to Ithaca, and after many more misadventures on Ithaca, reunites with his son Telemachus, his wife Penelope, and slaughters the suitors of his wife.

**Dave Davies** (3:11)
Okay, that's a good, quick summary.
In interviews before Christopher Nolan's film was released, you recommended that people should go and see it. You wrote a pretty tough review. Do you still think people should see it?

**Emily Wilson** (3:23)
Absolutely, I think people should see it. I think there's a lot to think about and talk about. And I think it's a good time at the movies. It's a big spectacle. There's a lot to think about, both in terms of what is this film saying about our times, and about war, violence and deception in our times, and also what it's doing with the source material. I do think that it would have been better if Nolan had hired a scriptwriter, because that would have solved a lot of the issues. But I also think the actors are amazing. It's a star-studded cast, and they're doing their absolute best with the script they were given.

**Dave Davies** (3:54)
Actors are amazing, not doing very much with character, right? I mean, the language was pretty tough. You're right, I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script. It's a family-friendly audio-visual spectacle, like an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display, with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth. You also complain that there are no sex scenes and all the food looks horrible.

**Emily Wilson** (4:16)
Yes, I mean, that's the laugh line, but the serious point I was trying to get to with the laugh line about no sex, no food, is that I think if we have a quest narrative, whether it's in a poem, a novel or a movie, we need to have a protagonist with detailed, believable motivation. He needs to want something. So the fact that these desires seem to be stripped from Odysseus. He doesn't seem to want food, doesn't seem to want sex. What does he want? He wants to assuage his guilt. And that seemed to me rather a thin motivation, especially compared to the rich layered characterization of both Odysseus and the other characters in Homer, but also just compared to a good movie. I would like to have deeper characterization in a film. I would like to care more.