Daniel Mendelsohn

speaker

599 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 16 Jul

Daniel Mendelsohn’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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The History of Literature · 817 The Odyssey - Getting Ready for a Summer Blockbuster | My Last Book with Mary Beard · 16 Jul 2026 podcast

I mean, he's right.

You know, a lot of what he said about Odysseus is right.

I'm a storyteller, you know, I'm a writer.

Writers love Odysseus because he is the ultimate and the first great storyteller in the Western tradition, yeah.

Uh and certainly in the classical tradition.

And so

Whereas you know, and he's also a bullshitter, if I can say that.

You know, he's he he manipulates his narratives in order to get what he wants, and my father hated that.

about him because my dad was a four square guy who believed in telling the truth, you know.

So to a certain extent I was more receptive to his

view, maybe because of his insistence on pointing out Odysseus's real dark flaws.

But you know, it's funny, because ultimately

You know, I mentioned before that you're either an Iliad person or an Odyssey person.

And you know, it I think it's always important to remind people that

Interpretations are always going to be different because the interpreter, the reader, is going to be different.

And you know, I I was never able to persuade my father of why what I thought is so great about Odysseus.

You know, he just couldn't see it.

And that's totally fine.

You know, it's not about convincing people that your interpretation is right or your feeling about a character is right, because we are all different people.

And you know, the Odyssey is, you know, indisputably a great

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