Author Defends The Odyssey After Translator's Rant

A literary dustup over Christopher Nolan's new Homer-inspired epic film is now a full-blown feud, with writer Joyce Carol Oates jumping in on the director's side. The Los Angeles Times reports that Oates has sharply criticized classicist Emily Wilson, whose hugely popular 2017 translation of The Odyssey helped inspire the film—before she turned around and savaged it in a viral London Review of Books essay that briefly crashed the magazine's site. Among Wilson's biting remarks, per Variety: "The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible."

Wilson also faulted the film for thin female characters, sidelined actors of color, and a take on war that she argues softens Homer's critique. On X, Oates accused Wilson of a "haughty" tone and likened the review's rhetoric to partisan pile-ons, arguing that a translator should show more collegiality given that all translations are subjective. "One would expect a translator, of all people, beholden to a text, in service to a text, to be just a wee bit more thoughtful & respectful of others who are acting in good faith just as (she would claim) she is," Oates noted. The novelist also took a swipe at Wilson's bestselling Odyssey, calling it pitched to a YA-friendly market and praising Nolan's movie instead.