What fresh Hellenic is this? Why is Christopher Nolan’s new Greek epic entirely devoid of authentic voices from the sea-monster community?
Christopher Nolan's film is set to be this year's biggest blockbuster - and also the biggest insult to anyone who actually looks like me. A guest post by Scylla.
I haven’t yet seen Christopher Nolan’s new cinematic version of The Odyssey, but it is nevertheless very important to me to condemn it absolutely, forcefully and as loudly as I can.
Because I am angry. And disappointed. Also: exhausted.
As you will no doubt know, this film has already been attacked by the weirdo-racist community for its failure to respect their needs and cast someone who fits in with their particular “understanding” of history.
It has also been pointed out that Nolan has failed to respect the Greek diaspora by ignoring their talents in favour of English-speaking actors with whom audiences will already be familiar. (And that’s not to to mention the numerous inhabitants of Ithaca who have had their island once again brought up as a supposedly desirable place to go but have not been sufficiently included in its portrayal.)
But, of course (of course!) no one so far has even bothered to raise a voice in favour of the sea-monster community.
That’s right. As usual, instead of actually asking us what we think, or recognising that we might actually have something to offer, the producers of this film have opted to ‘represent’ us, using cheap lighting effects and CGI. They have done so in ways that parody and belittle us. To add insult to injury, our voices have subsequently been drowned (something we already know more than a little about) by other soi-disant special interest groups who seem entirely unaware of the fact that we are the real victims here.
The irony is, that those who shout the loudest about “authentic” casting failed to even consider the fact that there isn’t a single authentic sea-monster (or even a solitary demi-god) in this film.
So, here I am, forced to speak up for myself - because no one else seems to have even considered me - which is itself an act of considerable violence.
Do you think I want to play the shrill victim when I’d much rather be spending my time constructively doing what I do best, out in the shipping lanes?
Was there really no-one from the sea-monster community who could have performed these roles?
Are we expected to believe that computer-rendered imagery has a deeper understanding of how to take out a few sailors than many of my differently-gifted brothers and sisters in the vessel-crushing world?
I don’t have to see this film to know that it is going to be typically humano-normative, anti-murder narrative with no thought for the needs of the mythological community. As usual, people like me will be portrayed as unintelligent, heartless, and inaccurately ugly creatures. They will portray us trying to destroy ships without motive. They will suggest that the very sight of us strikes terror into fragile white men.
No air time will be given to the very good reasons we might actually have for acting as we do - and no consideration will be given to our very real imperatives when it comes to the reaping and harvesting of souls.
Worst of all, we will be portrayed as ineffective, when in fact we have been working at this job for several thousand years and have skills that even Hollywood cannot imagine.
Had they but taken the trouble to ask we could have just as easily been paid massive amounts of money as those already established actors, who need it much less than us. We could easily have been on the posters and chat show sofas. We could easily have accepted the awards and praise and adoration that we are due.
Instead: erasure.
Once again we have been written out of the story .
For more than two-thousand years we have had to watch from the sidelines as critics give all the praise to Odysseus, strive to see profundity in his desire to get home and continue to make dull points about all that crap with the arrows and the weaving and the suitors that no one in their right mind actually cares about.
Well, I am here to say: enough. It’s time - gone time - that someone, somewhere recognised that, actually, it’s all about me.
Scylla
I wonder what Charybdis has to say about all this?
I am your ally, monsters.