Every era gets ‘The Odyssey’ it deserves

Monica Hesse in The Washington Post:

We can discuss later whether my education was merely eclectic or an utter catastrophe, but somehow, having successfully avoided the spoilers for nearly 3,000 years, I went into an early screening of “The Odyssey” with no idea of what it was about.

Was this the story where Orlando Bloom uses an arrow to shoot Brad Pitt’s foot? Is Medusa involved? “Should I try to speed-read it?” I asked my editor about four hours before I had to leave for the press screening, and, because she had read “The Odyssey,” she told me, no, I should not try to speed-read a 500-page translation of the most foundational epic in the history of the Western world before ordering a Coke Zero and losing my parking validation.

“But I have personally heard you correctly use the term ‘Odyssean’” another friend told me, and yes, this is how culture works: Eventually it becomes so entrenched that you can know what you’re talking about without knowing what you’re talking about. We all know that “Odyssean” means, roughly, related to a long or eventful journey, and otherwise we are going to walk into the theater and wing it.

More here.

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