Joyce Carol Oates defends The Odyssey after viral slam
Joyce Carol Oates defends Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey after translator Emily Wilson’s London Review of Books critique went viral. Writing on X, Oates said Wilson “speaks in the crude language of MAGA folks,” arguing a translator should be more thoughtful and respectful toward others interpreting Homer in good faith.
Key Takeaways
- Joyce Carol Oates publicly backed Nolan’s The Odyssey after Emily Wilson’s scathing review spread online.
- Oates accused Wilson of using “the crude language of MAGA folks” instead of collegial disagreement over Homer.
- Wilson’s London Review of Books piece called the film grandiose, superficial, and lacking emotional and ethical depth.
- Nolan had previously praised Wilson’s 2017 Odyssey translation and used its opening line for Matt Damon’s Odysseus.
The clash puts a classic-text translator and a major Hollywood epic at the center of a culture-war-tinged book-and-film fight. For more entertainment alerts, browse our Streaming & TV Alerts hub.
What did Joyce Carol Oates say about the review?
According to Variety, Oates posted on X after Wilson’s viral critique of Nolan’s film.
She wrote that rather than disagreeing with interpretations of Homer in a collegial manner, Wilson “speaks in the crude language of MAGA folks attacking someone with ideas that differ from hers.”
Oates added that a translator, “beholden to a text, in service to a text,” should be “just a wee bit more thoughtful & respectful of others who are acting in good faith.” She also claimed Wilson had “benefited enormously from Nolan’s film.”
Why did Emily Wilson slam The Odyssey?
Wilson, known for her 2017 translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, reviewed Nolan’s movie for the London Review of Books. She argued it lacked “psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth” and had “nothing convincing to say.”
In passages cited by Variety, Wilson said she had hoped Nolan’s affinity with Homeric themes would push him to new creative heights. Instead, she wrote, the film shows his “usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality,” with a “confused” vision and underdeveloped characters—though she credited it with “big bangs and big giants.”
She went further: “The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has a convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”
How does Nolan’s praise for Wilson complicate the feud?
The dispute is sharper because Nolan had publicly praised Wilson’s translation. He told Empire he used her opening line—“Tell me about a complicated man”—as a north star while shaping Matt Damon’s Odysseus.
That prior admiration makes Oates’s defense land as more than fan pushback: it frames Wilson’s review as an unusually harsh turn against a filmmaker who had elevated her work. Whether viewers side with the translator’s standards or Oates’s call for collegial tone, the exchange has become a flashpoint around how Hollywood adapts Homer—and who gets to police those adaptations.