On The Odyssey

 

What is more real?

Some people might say that being annoyed with the casting of a woman as a male warrior in a fantasy movie is silly, because it is fantasy and that includes cyclops and witches and the like. Now, I will just note here that The Odyssey is not fantasy, it is theological narrative, but we will leave that particular discussion for another day. Let's discuss the other issue.

What is more real? A cyclops or a woman being able to become a man?

Why, the cyclops of course. Every day of the week. Because the cyclops could be something that fits within our framework of existence. For one, it could have simply been a creature that came about as a result of inbreeding and genetic deformity, and made its way into legend by the process of passing on stories. Or maybe we just have not discovered the skeletons yet? Or maybe it is just a figment of human imagination? Either way, it still fits within a possible framework of existence, even if at the fantastical end. There is no law of nature that says a cyclops cannot exist. It is only our experience of having never seen one that causes us to doubt they do or did. But they don't break any laws of nature.

However, a woman becoming a man does break those, in an objectionable way. It is not a fantasy, so much as an inverting of reality. It is not too different to seeking to convince someone that a square can be round or a triangle can be rectangular. There is something truly off about it, precisely because it does rebel against the laws of nature in an objectionable way. It is not so much a product of imagination, but a product of perversion. Hence, it is less real and more to be objected to. The same the other way, if it is a man seeking to be a woman.

This is one of the core reasons why I don't want to watch a "fantasy" movie that casts a woman as a male warrior. I want my fantasy movies to help me suspend disbelief for a couple of hours, not throw me out of the movie in the very early scenes. Fantastical creatures are things of every child’s imagination. Inverting gender is different.

It is a shame, I actually like a lot of Nolan's work. But I won't miss not seeing this movie. It is about time I read the original story again, anyway.

Ironically, the original story contains a character that changes gender, Minerva more commonly called Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Greek gods, who were really demons, were known to do this often. They were capable of doing this because really they are ephemeral, that is they are not physical, they have no being and so flit between male and female at will. Nolan missed an opportunity to show how subversive the behaviour of ancient Greek gods really was. Instead, he decided to do something which will just throw many people out of his movie, before it has even really got going.