Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · May 15 listen, the only thing I have to say about the Odyssey is that these fucking asshole right-wing chuds don't fucking own history or literature. their racism and bigotry should be met with scorn and shame. read, instead, as James Baldwin (from an interview in 1963):
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art, the humanities, these are the things that will save us. this is why the right wants to own them. but fuck that. not without a fucking fight.
“the classics” only have a central role in our culture if they can be owned and interpreted by everyone Athol Fugard’s The Island - about Black South African prisoners staging Antigone - really drove that home to me. Sophocles IS relevant but only insofar as he’s interpreted today.
There were plenty of black people in Ancient Greece. So this is not some wild-ass stunt by Nolan. Also, policing race in literature is insane. Unless race is central to the character (& even then), you can take your seat in the back and be quiet.
The human experience is universal.
