Michael Furman

Ancient Historian of Thebes and Boeotia. Advocate for pedagogy training because teaching matters. All views expressed are my own.

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

I've got a LOT (for me) of new followers so let me reintroduce myself. I'm a professor and ancient historian of Thebes. When not stating the obvious about issues in Classics I tweet fun Thebes facts, talk about course design and Pseudoarchaeology, and advocate for pedagogy reform

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

Certain people: We need to bring back the Classics and make people learn their virtues from the ancients. Make everyone read Plato!

*Whips out Aristophanes' speech from Symposium*

Those same people: OK. Wait. Not like that...

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

10) You should enjoy the film for what it is. A visually stunning epic that will generate more public interest in the ancient world. They can complain about the film all they want, but I doubt you'll hear any translators complaining about the 700% increase in book sales it caused

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

8) I LOVED the choice to not let the audience hear the song of the sirens, or really even see them. Nolan's style has always seemed to me to be about what you DON'T see (the Prestige is the best example) and I thought it came through really well here

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

9) Definitely disappointed they didn't feature the gods playing a more active role, though I did feel like it was a bit of an inside joke for those in the know when Telemachus referred to Mentor as having the wise eyes of Athena, because Athena takes his form in the epic.

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

7) I loved Nolan's rendering of Book 11 and how he represented the transitional space between the living and the dead

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

1) I never once noticed how long it was. I was engaged for the entirety of the film

2) Don't care at all about the liberties taken with 'historical accuracy' like the different armor and weapons, architecture, etc. I loved the look of the Trojans in their almost white armor.

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

6) The main cast was OK, but it's also more about the visual spectacle than anything else. Damon, Hathaway, and Holland all played their characters well enough to be engaging.

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

5) The supporting cast made the experience, starting with John Leguizamo as Eumenes, whose emotive performance brought me to tears multiple times. Close second is Samantha Morton as Circe. Simultaneously disarming and terrifying, that sequence in all its grotesque was incredible.

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

4) Were there elements missing that I noticed? Yeah. No Nausicaa, for example. Did I care? No. It's a three hour movie and you're trying to cram a fucking epic poem into it. Some stuff has to be left out. I didn't watch Troy and think 'oh man they left out the Catalogue of Ships'

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

3) As Wilson said in her review, it's an adaptation of an adaptation, so anyone who wants to be pedantic about details can chill out. It's not a documentary, it's a commercial movie. The only question to ask is: did it feel authentically epic? And the answer to that is yes

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

Buckle up here is my review of the Odyssey coming from someone that is not as expert on the text itself as many other classicists who have reviewed it, but who asks his students to think about how the ancient past is continually adapted and reshaped to suit modern audiences:

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

Fulfilling my responsibility as a Classicist and going to see the Odyssey. No spoilers please I hope this Odysseus guy makes it home in the end.

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

Idk 'What could make Yale think it speaks for higher ed' @chronicle it's not like 3 of the 6 pieces featured on this section of your website today are either about or in response to someone or something at Yale...

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

On this St Patrick's day, I'd like to remind everyone that this glorious song exists...

https://t.co/ff0HofQXnX

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

If this is true it would be hilarious because it reads like something straight out of a Percival Everett novel

https://t.co/xrppScxwYR

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

Happy to announce that my paper 'Tabletop Classics: Game Design as Pedagogy and Public History' has been accepted to the Association of Ancient Historians Annual Meeting as part of the Public History and History Pedagogy panel. See you in Cincinnati

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

I can't explain why, but every time I go to a panel or paper on Reacting to the Past it feels like I am in the academic version of a timeshare pitch

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

The last time Jazz Chisholm got through a game WITHOUT doing something stupid #ALCS #Yankees

[Michael Furman @ProfBoeotia]

Oh what's that? It wasn't the evil administrators that did this? It was a bunch of tenured faculty?

I mean, tenured faculty are experts in everything university related and would definitely never kick a ladder down after climbing it, right?

https://t.co/Vcm3CmMgoW

[Aaron Poochigian @Poochigian]

I think of "Hwæt!" (the opening word of "Beowulf") as the first word of English literature.

Scholars write articles on what it might mean.

If you were translating "Beowulf," how would you capture "Hwæt!" in our English?