Catherine Nixey
speaker
98 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 6 Aug
Catherine Nixey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
In the 18th century, Alexander Pope's translation managed to make Odysseus sound like an effete Enlightenment poet rather than an ancient warlord.
In 1922, James Joyce's version offered sex, stream of consciousness, and that modernist literary staple, boredom.
So Christopher Nolan's retelling is part of a time-honoured tradition.
It is manifestly a product of the present day.
Female characters offer frequent apologias for feminism.
The casus belli of the Trojan War is given as a desire to improve trade routes.
But then the Odyssey contains multitudes.
In the three millennia since it was composed, it has been on an Odyssey all of its own.
The poem has become a play, a TV series and a porn film.
Odyssey, the ultimate trip.
It is therefore not surprising that Odysseus had been transformed by Christopher Nolan.
Though in other ways it is surprising, as the Odyssey has been a filmic wrecker of reputations.
A 2024 film starring Ralph Fiennes was dismissed as dull.
A movie of 1954 starring Kirk Douglas was described as weird and vapid.
Though Christopher Nolan has form on tricky topics, his previous film, Oppenheimer, about nuclear weapons, grossed almost $1 billion at the box office.
Still, even he has probably learned that The Odyssey is not an easy book to film.
Its structure is tricky.
It is about Odysseus, but readers do not meet him for four books.
But then it's also very famous.
The first Penguin classic ever printed was The Odyssey.
Showing 61–80 of 98 · page 4 of 5
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