78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



My Sometimes Homeric Snobbery
2004-05-20   10:39 a.m.

I find it highly amusing that since my last few searches and purchases from Amazon.com happened to involve Marcus Garvey, Botswanian author Bessie Head, and Toni Morrison's new children's book on the history of racial segregation and school integration, that the site has offered me a 20% discount on Vibe magazine.

I also find it highly amusing that the film Troy de-gay-ified Achilles, one of the most obviously homosexual characters of Homer's collected works.

I saw the film the other day, expecting something good based on an NPR review we'd heard in the car before its release. While the film wasn't bad, it wasn't good either. I couldn't help myself from having some ideological issues as well based on the above information. Making Patroclus Achilles' cousin? Oh come now. Have we forgotten Achilles' prayers from The Iliad, which asked the gods to "rid the world of all mankind", except for himself and Patroclus? Yes, teenage boys often do have such fantasies that it's only them and their beloved in the world. And have we forgotten that Thetis, Achilles' goddess mother, comes to him when he is mourning the death of Patroclus, telling him that he must move on with his life, and that "It is a good thing to lie in love with women too"?

And what, in the film, happened to Troilus, son of Priam (the King of Troy)? The one to whom Achilles said "I will kill you, if you do not yield to my caresses" as they were fighting? It was Troilus who, frightened, hid inside the temple of Apollo, and was beheaded because he refused to yield to Achilles' sexual advances.

The film seems to erase him completely and merge his character with Breseis, who, according to Ovid's take, did in fact have some weird captive/romance relationship with Achilles. However, we see Breseis as this virginal devotee of Apollo in Troy, not, as she is in The Iliad or in Ovid's Heroides, the wife of Mynes, ruler of nearby Lyrnessus (an ally of Troy).

Ah well, I suppose that's why Petersen and Benioff have billed it as an adaptation. Though some lines were extremely cliché and there was better character development in the made-for-TV Helen of Troy, much of the acting was outstanding, particularly that of Agamemnon, Hector, and Priam.

I can understand that from fiction to film, things must be changed - Ajax went out differently here than in The Iliad, for example, and there just wasn't much time to include more than two minutes of Thetis, Achilles' mother. But I just can't help being aggravated at the whole "Oh it's a great story! Just cut out all the gay stuff and we'll be ready to roll!" sentiment. That's bigger than a time issue, it's a phobia issue. What, the reality of the fluid sexuality of the Greeks could be represented in older films like Spartacus and Caligula, but can't now? That's backwards. It's regression. But I guess a giant company like Warner Brothers is still scared that any "hint" of alternative anything (though it wasn't "alternative" for the culture at the time) renders the film only appealing to a select audience.

Truthfully, there are many versions of The Iliad, and thousands of discrepancies over various translations, thousands of discrepancies from multiple sources about the actual events of the Trojan war. There is no "one" story that is correct; however, it's pretty ubiquitous in most that Achilles' and Patroclus' relationship was "special". Even, for the sake of argument, if we say they were just close and intimate platonic friends, why couldn't that have been depicted as such in the film? Men cannot have such relationships be believable? Achilles' wouldn't be so shaken over the death of a friend that he'd be motivated to fight again, full of rage and sorrow? Only blood relationships could incite such a reaction from this noble warrior?

Poooo. Phobic Warner Bros. Pardon me flexing my $30,000 literary muscles. You, too, can be a bevy of somewhat useless trivia if you attend grad school. Oh well, at least I didn't pay for it.

My birthday was much fun - Steve took the day off from work to be with me, and my friend Paul took us out to dinner. I enjoyed getting birthday emails and phone calls from friends - it meant a lot that my phone was ringing and beeping all day. I spent some of my birthday gift certificate at Sports Authority, and talked with Steve about so many different things. He understands me like no one ever has, and seems to know exactly what to say to help me see the clearer side of things. Aggravated all over again over something old and silly, he said "You shine too brightly for some people to handle, that's all". Now tell me that's not what one wants to hear on their birthday?

How I got so lucky I'll never know.

I treated myself to a couple of books the other day at a used book store in Montclair: Mary Daly's The Church and the Second Sex, cause I've always wanted the complete copy, Teresa Brennan's History After Lacan, cause I'm desperate to remember all I've forgotten about Feminist Theory, and a collection of essays on Women and Technology called Reconstructing Babylon. Hey, it's never too early to start figuring out just what the hell I'm going to do with a class called "Gender and Technology" that I've been asked to teach recently.

I must save the rest of my money because of my upcoming travels. I have a few gifts to give next month: a cousin is graduating from HS and has worked so hard that he deserves the check I plan on giving him, and a friend is getting married and I recall how grateful I was that our wedding money helped us pay for our festivities. I narrowly escaped being invited to three other weddings this and next month. Let's face it: weddings of people you a)don't know, b)don't like, and c)don't talk to much anymore just aren't fun. Besides, I'd be hella broke if I had to give gifts at all of 'em.

How terribly selfish but honest of me. Wink wink. It's one of those days. I'm off to veg out with a movie and rest my sore muscles. No gym today.

xox,