Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey: A Review

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Controversy and mudslinging are not new features of the Homeric tradition.  We are told that, in 1715, soon after Alexander Pope published the first volume of his translation of the Iliad, the eminent poet was assailed by Britain’s most fearsomely competent Hellenist, Richard Bentley.  Bentley, with the insufferable bluntness that had made him famous (or infamous), told Pope, “It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer.”  Pope revenged himself on Bentley in his satirical Dunciad by portraying the scholar as a pedantic bore who “made Horace dull, and humbled Milton’s strains.”    

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On The Conflict Between Artistic License And Fidelity To A Classic Work

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The imminent release of Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey on July 17 has ignited a vigorous and necessary debate regarding the tension between artistic license and the importance of fidelity to a classic text.  It is a question of old date.  But while every generation has felt the compulsion to interpret anew the literary monuments of the past, they have often hesitated, out of respect for the antiquity of these monuments, to tamper unduly with the words and sentiments contained within them.

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Wealth Cannot Turn Back Time (Podcast)

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In this podcast we discuss a short moral essay of Samuel Johnson. In the essay, a narrator, who was once poor but now is rich, desires to return to his hometown and treat with condescension those who once viewed him with disdain. His scheme of petty revenge, however, does not play out as he wishes. We explain why, and what the implications are.

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The Climacterics

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The word climacteric is not one commonly encountered.  The Oxford English Dictionary describes its variegated colors of meaning.  A consultation with Volume II of the 1970 edition (covering the letter C) informs us that the word is an adjective “applied to that period of life (usually between the ages of 45 and 60) at which the vital forces begin to decline.” 

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“I Need Some Advice In My Job Search” (Podcast)

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A reader is experiencing some difficulties in his job search. He just graduated from a respected degree program, but he is beginning to realize that opportunities are hard to come by. In fact, his morale is low, and he’s not sure what his next steps should be. We discuss.

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It Meant More To You Than It Did To Them (Podcast)

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There are times when we try to share fond memories of the past with friends, family, or former lovers. Yet, we often find that these nostalgic recollections are not acknowledged or reciprocated as much as we would like. We may feel emotionally spurned, or shut out. Why is this? We discuss.

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The Availability Of Information Does Not Equate To Its Effective Employment

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Dear Sir:

Some recent news reports have occasioned me to call attention to a principle of learning which, in our era of existential unease and fracture, often escapes notice.  A professor at an institution of higher learning, we have been told, worries that he may not be able to “compete” (as he says) with the volumes of information made available to his students by the machines of artificial intelligence.  In this I think his fears are misplaced, and that he need not heat his mind to such a state of fretful ebullition; and I will attempt, with a few disjointed thoughts and unconnected meanderings, to explain why I believe this to be so.

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Rise From The Earth, And Fly As A Victor

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The progress of duncery is geometric, while knowledge and understanding advance, if at all, with arithmetic slowness.  He who demands acute perception from the overwhelming mass of humanity will find himself crushed in disappointments, and immersed in doleful ruminations.

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“I’m Distraught That She Ended It” (Podcast)

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A reader is upset that his girlfriend has broken things off. He believes that his behavior was the cause of it, and has been trying to repair the perceived damage. He wonders if there is something he could have done, or should have done. Nothing is working out, however. We offer some opinions about the situation.

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Trivial Characters Never Disparage Themselves

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In his treatise on medicine, the Roman writer Celsus digresses to make a shrewd observation on the behavior of personalities of rare distinction.  He happened to note, in the writings of Hippocrates, that the great Greek doctor once confessed to having been misled by the presence of sutures in a patient.  Such a comment might have passed without notice with any other reader; but Celsus was a perceptive observer and a man of broad sophistication.  He ventured the following remarks:

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