Patrick Faus

The response to this movie has ultimately demonstrated that the analytical approach to art prohibits our poetic sense. The analytical mind is blinded by its predetermined conclusions, rendering one incapable of seeing what is present as they are distracted by what is absent.

Annie Crawford

@annielcrawford

1 day ago

People keep forgetting to point out that after Circe makes her feminist tirade, Nolan undercuts her ideology by the fact that she is wrong about Odysseus and his men and herself has wickedly turned her sister into a crow. He consistently presents postmodern tropes in a way that undercuts them. It’s rather tragic that conservatives cannot see this because they decided to pre-judge the movie before giving it a chance.

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Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

3 days ago

@annielcrawford Can’t wait for this.

Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

4 days ago

“And may the good gods give you all heart desires: husband, and house, lasting harmony too. No finer, greater gift in the world than that when man and woman possess their home, two minds, two hearts that work as one. Despair to their enemies, a joy to all their friends. Their own best claim to glory” - Homer, The Odyssey

Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

5 days ago

@annielcrawford Absolutely. I saw an interview that Nolan did where he stated Goya’s painting as the inspiration.

Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

6 days ago

@TheOptimisticC3 @MattWalshBlog @LogresInstitute @hadleyonfire Well played!

Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

10 days ago

@BBHerodotus Well said. Similar to my thoughts as well. It’s emphasis on piety— that when piety is forsaken, chaos results— was compelling and a powerful story to be retold in our own day.

Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

10 days ago

How is she ridiculous? She is highlighting consistent patterns that religious people tend to display with regard to their perception with art. This is a helpful observation for us to consider our assumptions prior to and as we engage an art form. Her experience of the film isn’t required to establish this foundation.

Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

11 days ago

Yes! As someone who has seen it, this adaptation understands the essential need of piety for a culture to work. Without piety brutality follows.

Annie Crawford

@annielcrawford

11 days ago

One of my students emailed me asking about the Odyssey. He loved it but is second-guessing his own discernment after seeing all the conservative criticism of the film. He specifically mentioned how the movie derivates from the original story. Here is my response: Much of a person's reaction depends on the priors they bring to the film. If you think diversions from Homer's text are equivalent to a flaw, then you are set up to dislike every adaptation ever, because that's literally what it means to adapt or re-tell a story - if you didn't change anything, you would be just reading the Greek to yourself. Moreover, Homer's Odyssey itself is an adaptation of the oral tradition - think about how details and characters vary between Homer and the Greek playwrights or between Homer and Virgil. Remember how all the Arthurian stories were developed and retold and changed over the years and still are being changed! Have you seen Malcom Guite's new Galahad and the Grail? It's incredible. Highly, highly recommend. And when transposing a text to a film, many things have to change in order to accommodate the unique nature and needs of the visual medium. As an analogy, what might happen to a song when it gets transposed into a symphony of vice versa? Most of the negative reviews so far seem to me to complain that "it's not Homer" which is silly or "it's woke" which seems unsupported apart from a few casting choices. While I very much dislike the casting of Page, that is one big mark in the negative column which the many marks of an amazing movie might overcome. So the two key questions for me as I go to see the film next week are these: First, there are deep, transcendent truths about the nature of Fathers and Marriage and Kingdoms woven into the Odyssey. Does the new adaptation reflect those truths or does it try to subvert them? Second, Homer was a master poet and artist. Does the new film honor that artistry with its own? That aesthetic can be different; in fact, I believe it ought to be. Historically accurate obsessions are appropriate to history class and documentaries, not to art. Remember all the Renaissance styled images of the Virgin Mary? I most enjoy contemporary art when archetypal tropes and perennial truths are reincarnated in a new form that sheds transcendent light on our own contemporary situation. It is the marriage of transcendent and particular that makes art powerful and great. Does Nolan take the transcendent Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Odyssey and re-embody it in a new form that will help us see the role of the Father and the nature of a Kingdom again with fresh eyes? Will the film help us love fatherhood again and long for the return of the King? Pageau seems to think so and I haven't seen him be wrong before. He understands art from the inside out while most critics are stuck inside a modernist paradigm and current culture war (concerned about accuracy in the particulars and scoring political points - they are trapped in the immanent) and that prevents them from understanding the role and nature of art or assessing it wisely. I will be looking for the archetypal meaning - does Nolan reflect or distort the Truth (which is different from 'facts')? - as well as the aesthetic merits - do his choices in dialogue, visuals, character, plot, etc... work together as a whole to communicate a coherent vision? Are the themes that Nolan develops in harmony with the essential story of the Odyssey or are they imposed upon it in a way that distorts the heart of what Homer has bequeathed to us? (Here, I see another problem with critiques of the film so far - I don't recognize the Homer many people claim to be defending. Homer wasn't telling a straight forward, ra ra, war is awesome and Odysseus is a Chad kind of film.) Finally, does the medium match the message with seamless integrity or does he make poor choices for perhaps political reasons that compromise the meaning or aesthetic unity of the story? I will find out for myself next week.

annielcrawford's tweet photo. One of my students emailed me asking about the Odyssey. He loved it but is second-guessing his own discernment after seeing all the conservative criticism of the film. He specifically mentioned how the movie derivates from the original story. Here is my response:

Much of a person's reaction depends on the priors they bring to the film. If you think diversions from Homer's text are equivalent to a flaw, then you are set up to dislike every adaptation ever, because that's literally what it means to adapt or re-tell a story - if you didn't change anything, you would be just reading the Greek to yourself.

Moreover, Homer's Odyssey itself is an adaptation of the oral tradition - think about how details and characters vary between Homer and the Greek playwrights or between Homer and Virgil. Remember how all the Arthurian stories were developed and retold and changed over the years and still are being changed! Have you seen Malcom Guite's new Galahad and the Grail? It's incredible. Highly, highly recommend.

And when transposing a text to a film, many things have to change in order to accommodate the unique nature and needs of the visual medium. As an analogy, what might happen to a song when it gets transposed into a symphony of vice versa?

Most of the negative reviews so far seem to me to complain that "it's not Homer" which is silly or "it's woke" which seems unsupported apart from a few casting choices. While I very much dislike the casting of Page, that is one big mark in the negative column which the many marks of an amazing movie might overcome.

So the two key questions for me as I go to see the film next week are these:

First, there are deep, transcendent truths about the nature of Fathers and Marriage and Kingdoms woven into the Odyssey. Does the new adaptation reflect those truths or does it try to subvert them?

Second, Homer was a master poet and artist. Does the new film honor that artistry with its own? That aesthetic can be different; in fact, I believe it ought to be. Historically accurate obsessions are appropriate to history class and documentaries, not to art. Remember all the Renaissance styled images of the Virgin Mary?

I most enjoy contemporary art when archetypal tropes and perennial truths are reincarnated in a new form that sheds transcendent light on our own contemporary situation. It is the marriage of transcendent and particular that makes art powerful and great.

Does Nolan take the transcendent Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Odyssey and re-embody it in a new form that will help us see the role of the Father and the nature of a Kingdom again with fresh eyes? Will the film help us love fatherhood again and long for the return of the King?

Pageau seems to think so and I haven't seen him be wrong before. He understands art from the inside out while most critics are stuck inside a modernist paradigm and current culture war (concerned about accuracy in the particulars and scoring political points - they are trapped in the immanent) and that prevents them from understanding the role and nature of art or assessing it wisely.

I will be looking for the archetypal meaning - does Nolan reflect or distort the Truth (which is different from 'facts')? - as well as the aesthetic merits - do his choices in dialogue, visuals, character, plot, etc... work together as a whole to communicate a coherent vision?

Are the themes that Nolan develops in harmony with the essential story of the Odyssey or are they imposed upon it in a way that distorts the heart of what Homer has bequeathed to us? (Here, I see another problem with critiques of the film so far - I don't recognize the Homer many people claim to be defending. Homer wasn't telling a straight forward, ra ra, war is awesome and Odysseus is a Chad kind of film.)

Finally, does the medium match the message with seamless integrity or does he make poor choices for perhaps political reasons that compromise the meaning or aesthetic unity of the story?

I will find out for myself next week.

Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

12 days ago

@annielcrawford Saw it last night with Joshua Gibbs and Dcn. Nicholas Kotar. None of us were disappointed.

Patrick Faus

@patrickfaus

13 days ago

@BatsKnightmare @erikmts123 That’s totally true about Black Panther and how it became a cultural phenomenon. However, that was just one example I was showing. Deadpool also came out around that time and was a huge hit, so there is evidence it can work.