Clash of ideas, on news & literature

Tag: Christopher Nolan

  • Sixpenny Heroism

    There is a serious critique buried beneath the crude MAGA attacks. It is one that Nietzsche leveled and it’s being reprised by some of the tech bros today. Nature worried that Christianity’s egalitarian ideas made us less likely to be wildly ambitious, risk-seeking, even reckless. Have we become so humane that we’ve lost the primal urges that made us heroic?

    —Fareed Zakaria, CNN commentator

    That’s his take on Christopher Nolan’s the Odyssey, since I have talked about it already, it is not my main topic today.

    “Blood, gore, and conquest”. If, as Mr. Zakaria says, Donald Trump’s “heroism” is in fact primitive as well anti-Christianity; then should I say, Donald Trump himself is in fact “anti-Christ”?

    MORALITY in BED

    Therefore I always believe that the Church should not avoid political and moral problems, if so, it would be avoiding the human problem, then when issues come up, they can’t offer solutions.

    I guess Christian Church have not been avoiding political and moral problems; the problem is, however, is the issues they are interested in are just what happen in bed between which sex the 2 persons belong.

    As a result, today’s Christian Church, especially those fundamentalist and evangelical churches in the US, is incapable of dealing with the complex social problems the nation is facing today. They simply solve it in the yes-or-no, right-or-wrong answer: Terrorism is bad, immigrants are threat; solving crime with jails, and owning guns is a right.

    And when someone who cares the issues they concern, they will embrace him/her, despite his/her other policies are harmful, illegal, even immoral.

    And this is the result of this fiasco called Donald Trump.

    As it turns out, Jesus Christ was a progressive in his own day, but the same cannot be said for his church.

    OUTDATED IDEOLOGY

    Seems that Donald Trump’s “greatness” sticks with pre-historic era: armed with 12th century BC heroism, 19th century ideology and 1970’s asthetics, he is treating 21st international affairs with determination.

    I guess the host of this podcast is lenient to him. In another program, also from ABC of Australia, Mr. Trump’s outdate ideology is even more obvious:

    The Navy’s apparently also considering another major redesign of this upcoming aircraft carrier because of what Trump thinks looks good.  They’re considering moving the multi-story command tower on the ship further forward to the middle of the ship so the new ships can look more like the ships did back in World War II.

    Oh, I should correct my statement before: not “1970’s asthetics”, but 1940’s … Turn out for the sake of his old taste of warship design, some 5,000 sailors and pilots need to stay on the Arabian Sea for more then 270 days without seeing the land.

    (Note retrospectively: it’s 286 days)

    Furthermore, I don’t think he believe his sailors should rest …

    Donald Trump comment about USS Abraham Lincoln’s deployment in the Arabian Sea. Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, August 14, 2026.

    Shouldn’t we surprise if there is a superstition of pre-historic heroism from Mr. Trump?

    FUNDAMENTALISM

    “Make America great again,” because America’s greatness is not happening today; it was a thing in the past, even in pre-historic era.

    Fundamentalism’s concept is basically the same: We should go back to what it was, and what it should be. Baptism must be submerged your whole body into the water, not just sprinkling just those few ceremonial and pointless drops. Women should stick in their home and be men’s slaves as well a baby-producing machine, and shouldn’t have knowledge, intelligence and ambition to the world. Sex is for a man and a woman, not with anyone you desire or born to be …

    Sound familiar? These are also ideal of al-Qaeda, Taliban and Islamic State.

    In Chinese, we translate “fundamentalism” differently if refers to different religion: in Christianity (Protestantism, to be exact), it is “基要派”, literally “the sect of basic necessity”; in Islam, it is “原教旨主義”, means “the ideology of original teaching”.

    Furthermore, “原教旨主義” sounds more negative then “基要派”, since the former is so “outdated” and “stubborn”.

    But it is, afterall, “outdated” and “stubborn”; they are all “fundamentalism“.

    “LEFTARD”

    Certainly I am not saying old stuffs are always bad. Old buildings are always more beautiful then the new ones, we always love to collect antiques, and I love fountain pens more then modern ballpoints.

    The point is not the new always better then the old. The point is we must not force everyone to think the same, act the same and loyal to the same person and beliefs.

    A society of uniformity is always a basic necessity to dictatorship, since it is more easier to control, the morality is much more “simple”, as well one man’s will can be much more easier to push to the mass. A country with only one religion is a thing of the past, and shouldn’t be brought back.

    The world is progressing, so we must not satisfy with just some simple solutions and answers. Addiction to drugs is always bad, but why is it happening to some people, even some of them obviously know it is bad? Banning all the drugs is a simple solution (and very satisfying, too), but shouldn’t we consider a more effective way, like dealing with the reasons why people rather use drug: work stress, social pressure, self-esteem, purpose of life? Prostitution, in some’s mind or some religions’ moral code, are bad; but have you consider some solutions like stopping human trafficking to root out completely?

    This is why I goes against present day’s Conservatism: they are not solving problem, they are simply waging a culture war, halting all progresses we fight for all those ages (and they even calls them “woke”, think they are some kinds of injustice), and in some cases, they even whitewash those dictatorships, aggressors and warmongers, and help them to windowdressing their crimes, as Alternative für Deutschland’s so-called “Vision 2026” shows.

    These are not visions for AD 2026, but 1175 BC, roughly the time when Odysseus was trying to return home.

  • Christopher Nolan’s «the Odyssey»: We all want to go home, but can we?

    It’s clearly “Nimrod”, one of Edward Elgar’s famous Enigma Variations. It was in Dunkirk, and now it is in the Odyssey.

    The differences are also obvious: Ludwig Göransson has just used bits and pieces in the Odyssey; sometimes, as shown in Let’s Go Home above, the melody is cut somehow even the motif doesn’t finish yet. Meanwhile in Dunkirk, other then some modifications, Hans Zimmer’s Variation 15 below is still recognicable with the origin.

    The motif shows up again in Chasing the Escaping Sun (below). However, the motif is not only fragmented, but also distorted.

    SPOILER ALERT after this audio, about the ending of Mr. Nolan’s the Odyssey.

    What more interesting is: As this piece of music appear, Odysseus is not returning to Ithaca; he gives up his crown and offer it to Telemachus his son, and set sail to the west with his wife, Penelope.

    He is leaving home.

    HOME

    After the war, soldiers go home. They even want to go home long before the war is over.

    So why takes Odysseus 10 years to return home? A lot of people “don’t understand” this, as those memes shown:

    What if home doesn’t give Odysseus comfort and safety, but guilt and saddness?

    ATHENA

    God certainly has a right to choose which face she would love to show up to the world or to specific person. And with Odysseus, she chooses THIS face:

    A slain priestess in the temple of Athena in Troy.

    This leave audience a whitespace (留白, Liubai) for intrepretation. She may be Goddess Athena herself, or she may be just Odysseus’ guilt materialized, or both.

    In Oceanus where living people can speak to the dead, the first person Odysseus met is Sinon: the boy he tricked to stay outside the horse, so the boy could lie to the Trojans about the horse. Odysseus, however, also lie to Sinon, without telling him about the soldiers inside the horse.

    PHAEACIANS

    Certainly Mr. Nolan’s the Odyssey has omitted lots of details from the book, including a fact that the whole journey of Odysseus is mostly his own account to the Phaeacians.

    Omitting this is not a big deal. I want to state this, however, is to stress the whole journey may all have been in Odysseus’ head all along. Afterall, he has been lost his way for 10 years (or simply means a long time: Greeks like to symbolize “a long time” as “10 years”, just like the “10-year war” against Troy).

    Whether the Trojan War and Odysseus long journey home is fact, an imagination in Odysseus’ mind, the collection of certain oral myths by Homer some 300 years later, or the retelling in Mr. Nolan’s IMAX movie magic after 3 millennia, the story evolves from time to time according to the medium, the creators’ creative process, as well the acceptability of the audience.

    According to Wikipedia, the key themes include “the ideas of nostos (νόστος; ‘return’, homecoming), wandering, xenia (ξενία; ‘guest-friendship’), testing, and omens.” I know some scholars do question Mr. Nolan’s adaption; however, I think he contains most of the themes original Odyssey want to discuss, even extends these theme for our time. Either the guests (the 108 suiters of Queen Penelope in Ithaca) or the hosts (first Circe, then Calypso) violate the so-called “Zeus Law”, or xenia represents the collapse of world order, and the threat of “Sea People” has become an oracle of distruction of Odysseus’ world. By using an archeological hypothesis (“Sea People”) of the 12th century Bronze Age Collapse, Mr. Nolan is making his Odyssey a prophecy to today’s world.

    President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is simply chasing the money with “democracy”, “freedom”, “justice” as disguise. Thus, if Mr. Nolan’s Odyssey is a criticism to American hegemony, then Elon Musk’s attack on the movie is just hypocritical, with ideology of “anti-woke”, “against DEI” as his disguise.

    NOSTOS

    Meanwhile, the date the fall of Troy and the massacre of the Trojan people has become the moment Odysseus lost his home forever.

    The second person he meets in Oceanus, Agamemnon the “Supreme Commander” of the Greek expeditionary force tells his “homecoming”: he’s killed by his wife, since he’s sacrificed his daughter so the invasion can go smoothly. The moment Agamemnon lost his home forever is when he put Iphigenia on the altar.

    The movie toned down Odysseus’ arrogence (not telling Polyphemus after he is safe this time) and add some humanity to his character (plucking the bowstring before striking the arrow to kill, for example). Yet, Odysseus is still a cruel and calculated man (giving his preys a chance to escape, but didn’t give Sinon the same chance). The Greeks may have every reason to punish Troy (snatching Helen from the Spartan King); with all the advantage and benefit of trade Troy has enjoyed, however, all reasons has become excuses. And when his men has become just number of casualties (that’s the reasoning behind his choice between whirlpool Charybdis and the multi-headed monster Scylla), Odysseus’ “humanity” is so laughable.

    From this perspective, Odysseus’ sin is equal to Agamemnon’s.

    As a result, Odysseus cannot go home. He still has to repay his guilt by sailing west to honor his fallen soldiers, with Penelope on his side; he can only seek peace in exile.

    He can’t go home, until his soldiers can.

    RETURNING HOME

    For those British solders on the beach of Dunkirk, home is just one English Channel away. For Odysseus, home is where the sun escapes.

    I don’t think I have, so where is yours?