The Absurd Misunderstanding Fueling the Debate Over ‘The Odyssey’
Elon Musk’s outrage at Christopher Nolan says more about today’s myopic notion of identity than it does about classical antiquity.
TL;DR
- Critics accused 'Ghost in the Shell' of 'whitewashing' by casting Scarlett Johansson as a cyborg whose identity is mutable.
- Filmmaker Christopher Nolan is facing backlash for casting Lupita Nyong'o, a Kenyan Mexican actor, as Helen of Troy in an adaptation of 'The Odyssey'.
- Elon Musk and others have accused Nolan of disrespecting Greek culture and Homer's legacy.
- The article argues that the mythological origins of Helen, hatched from an egg laid by Zeus in swan form, make the racial objections absurd.
- The author contends that audiences are willing to suspend disbelief for fiction but not for race, revealing a 'pathology' in policing racial identity.
- This selective outrage spans ideological divides, with right-wing identitarians mirroring progressive arguments they claim to oppose.
- Art's purpose is to transcend divisions of language, color, and nation, allowing audiences to imagine themselves in other lives.
- Obsessively policing racial identity boundaries risks squandering the gift of art's universal appeal.