Emily Wilson

speaker

468 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 1 Aug

Emily Wilson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

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Fresh Air · ‘Odyssey’ translator Emily Wilson: Nolan should've hired a screenwriter · 29 Jul 2026 podcast

In Greek, there's a word nostos, from which we get nostalgia, a story about a journey home from war.

The Odyssey traces the story of how Odysseus escapes from the island of Calypso, a goddess with whom he's been spending the past seven years,

And finally, after many misadventures, makes it back to Ithaca.

And after many more misadventures on Ithaca, reunites with his son Telemachus, his wife Penelope, and slaughters the suitors of his wife.

Absolutely, I think people should see it.

I think there's a lot to think about and talk about and I think it's a good time at the movies.

It's a big spectacle.

There's a lot to think about both in terms of what is this film saying about our times and about war, violence and deception in our times and also what it's doing with the source material.

I do think that it would have been better if Nolan had hired a scriptwriter because that would have solved a lot of the issues.

But I also think the actors are amazing.

It's a star-studded cast and they're doing their absolute best with the script they were given

Yes, I mean, that's the laugh line.

But the serious point I was trying to get to with the laugh line about no sex, no food is that I think if we have a quest narrative, whether it's in a poem, a novel or a movie, we need to have a protagonist with dignity.

detailed, believable motivation.

He needs to want something.

So the fact that these desires seem to be stripped from Odysseus, he doesn't seem to want food, doesn't seem to want sex.

What does he want?

He wants to assuage his guilt.

And that seemed to me rather a thin motivation, especially compared to the rich layered characterization of both Odysseus and the other characters in Homer, but also just compared to a good movie.

I would like to have deeper characterization in a film.

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