Rick The Cook

South London living; Tottenham Hotspur supporting; Mac lovin'; opinionated former punk ... I like loud arguments and louder guitars

[Sulla @spqr_sulla]

More context for people who don’t get:

Nolan leaves little doubt about the film’s central theme. Read between the lines—or simply listen to his interviews—and it is xenia, the sacred duty of hospitality, what he calls “Zeus’s Law.” (If you forget the first time it’s okay - characters helpfully repeat it ten thousand times in the film)

Nolan’s Odysseus is a haunted veteran, burdened by guilt, scarred by war, and tormented above all by the Trojan Horse. He fights because he must, not because he delights in it. Home becomes his only ambition.

Homer’s Odysseus is different. He longs for Ithaca, but he also longs for kleos—glory that outlives death. He delights in testing himself against gods, monsters, kings, and the sea. His cunning is a source of pride, his daring a virtue. The Greeks (and Athena herself!) admired him not merely because he survived, but because he possessed the courage, ingenuity, and relentless will to master fortune itself.

Nolan recasts this Bronze Age hero in a modern mold. Homer’s world prizes kleos, honor, cunning, and martial excellence; Nolan’s prizes guilt, domesticity, and moral restraint. The Trojan Horse becomes a lifelong burden of GUILT rather than a masterpiece of strategy. The pursuit of glory yields to the pursuit of peace. Xenia—one virtue among many in Homer—is elevated into the moral foundation of civilization itself. The result is an Odysseus who feels less like the resourceful king celebrated by the Greeks than a modern conscience burdened by sin.

Nolan does not simply retell Homer. He rewrites the moral universe in which Homer takes place.

The clearest example comes in a single line: “Don’t look for gods in men. You’ll only be disappointed.” It is memorable. It is also profoundly un-Homeric. The Greeks looked for the divine everywhere. Heroes claimed descent from the gods, sought to imitate them, and pursued aretē and kleos in the hope of approaching immortal greatness. Even xenia rested on the possibility that the stranger at your door might literally be Zeus in disguise. Homer’s world urged men to look upward. Nolan’s tells them not to.

The gods themselves nearly vanish. Athena becomes less a goddess than a voice of conscience. Poseidon is reduced to rumor. Divine providence gives way to psychology. Where Homer explains the world through fate, honor, and the will of Olympus, Nolan explains it through guilt, trauma, and redemption.

The ending completes the transformation. In Homer, Odysseus eventually leaves Ithaca again to fulfill Tiresias’s prophecy and replenish his stolen goods by raiding after which he will live to a peaceful old age. Nolan instead has him depart in self-imposed exile, seeking atonement for his violations of xenia.

Taken together, these changes amount to more than creative license. They replace the moral vision that made the Odyssey uniquely Greek with one far more familiar to modern audiences. Homer’s world celebrates glory, excellence, cunning, heroic ambition, and the constant presence of the divine. Nolan’s celebrates guilt, compassion, hospitality, and moral restraint. War becomes a tragedy rather than an arena for greatness. Xenia expands from one sacred obligation FOR the gods into the supreme ethical commandment that undergirds civilization. The gods recede until they are little more than metaphors—or disappear altogether—leaving man to find meaning on his own.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: The Tories have mocked Lucy Powell's grammar in a post celebrating her appointment as Education Secretary

[Le_Sorelle_Arduino KPSS @Sorelle_Arduino]

Now that we know Ann Widdecombe was murdered with a hammer, any comment from Jolyon Maugham on his support for Bash Back

An organisation targeting MPs who invite their supporters to ‘choose your weapon’ and feature a man brandishing a hammer

@GoodLawProject @barstandards

[Sophy Ridge @SophyRidgeSky]

Love @gilescoren on the “bronze final”

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@QcWynter If these TRA had ever competed in International Sport, they would know about MANDATORY urine testing whereby the Test Official joins the athlete in the cubicle and watches them pee into a cup. Literally watches the urine stream from body to test tube. That is invasive.

[LindaTG1810 @ltg1810]

@RyanShorthouse Here all the things you can’t do with a conviction for fraud by misrepresentation

It’s a clear aberration that being a MP is not excluded

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@cabinetofficeuk But do not leave your wallets on your desks

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@cabinetofficeuk Quick … hide the valuables

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@MikeTappTweets He is still not going to shag you. But maybe ….

[Widmerpool Appreciation Society @AtticumFloreat]

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨

Louise Haigh is Minister of Administrative Affairs.

She was going to be the new Schools Minister but sadly failed the DBS check.

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@sharrond62 Prison????

[Ricky Gervais @rickygervais]

This wasn't allowed in public incase it offended anyone. So please don't retweet it. Thanks 🙏https://t.co/1stbtsNZG1

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

Angela Rayner is being tipped to be Education Secretary!!!
The woman who left school with more children than qualifications.
#CabinetReshuffle

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

Hermer is OUT

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@FabrizioRomano He should be banned for life

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@FIFAcom need to act … disgraceful thuggery and @leoparedesve should be banned from International Football for life.

[Adam Schwarz @AdamJSchwarz]

Leandro Paredes should be banned from international football for life viciously assaulting Spanish players after the final whistle.

Indefensible thuggery and criminality.

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@icardo8 @Bayous01parody ALL the people living in Argentina are “implanted settlers”.
The Spanish colonialists killed the entire native population and the Falklands were uninhabited when they were claimed by Britain.

[Kinky John @Bayous01parody]

One of my favourite Falklands facts:

When the referendum was held in 2013 about whether they wished to remain British or become part of Argentina only 3 people voted for Argentina.

There were 18 Argentinians living on the island at the time…

😂

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

@garyseconomics It is not #Grifter

[Rick The Cook @kingrickydarlin]

That’s the way to do it @andyburnham

[Stuey Beef 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @stuey_beef]

Sweden quietly tied 100m kronor (about $10m) in aid to Somalia to a deportation deal: Mogadishu would take back Somali nationals Sweden wanted to remove, including some convicted criminals who refused to leave.

Their Development Minister defended it bluntly: “It is reasonable to use aid as an incentive for countries to take back their citizens.

Finland went a step further – freezing its country programme for Somalia when it refused to accept more deportees, halting new projects while keeping humanitarian aid only.

That is what real leverage looks like: cooperate on deportations or watch the aid tap close.

Labour’s response to Pakistan’s refusal to take back Ahmed? A £153m aid package and vague talk of “engaging at a senior level”.