iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

If someone thinks we had a shared bond after 9/11, they're probably remembering what they wish had happened. There was hope, at first, that we would rise above the violence that had been foisted upon us. But, if they think we're not bonded against fascism now, they're not paying attention. 3/3

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

By contrast, the time I felt this country was most unified was November 6, 2024. Everyone was asking, with sincerity, "how are you doing?" We were all looking out for each other, making sure no one felt alone. I haven't felt that sensibility abate in the past two years. 2/3

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

On September 12, 2001, my soccer coach said we'd been attacked by people who hate our freedoms, and I knew that we were not unified. He wasn't incorrect - freedom is generally counter to the beliefs of al Qaeda - but he failed to rise to the moment the way 11-year-old me expected grownups to. 1/3

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

1) This belief system sounds more like a religion. 2) I would discuss about any outside behaviors, which aren't specified in the scenario, e.g. changes in social behavior, neglect of chores or hobbies, or mood changes. So, yes, like someone with alcoholism or other mental health condition. 3) No.

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Top 5 things my nephew thinks are cool: 1) Games 2) Famly 3) Vacation 4) Food 5) Bodaga cats

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Meanwhile, we the viewers, who have inherited a constantly-incrementally-improving civilization, continue to retell his story against his wishes, reminding ourselves of the thrills and devastations that come with greatness. Fin. 38/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

So, at the end of this, we're left with the journey of a man who is personally fascinating and impressive, but not entirely wise enough to see himself as part of a larger community of humanity, too entranced with his personal greatness to imagine a history that stretches before and after him.37/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Odysseus made it a hell of a lot easier for him. No mention of that from our protagonist, though. Maybe it's more palatable for him to focus on his own actions after the war was already underway, when it was too late for him to have much chance of fixing things. 36/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

In all his self-recrimination, though, Odysseus neglects his own action that made the Trojan War possible. He was the one who convinced all the others to pledge their support to Helen's husband. Maybe Agamemnon could have pressured the other warriors to join him anyway, but... 35/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Nolan removes Penelope's bed-trick from the narrative so Odysseus is greeted not by a wife who matches his wit, but one who matches his cynicism and despair. Determining that reform is hopeless, they leave the world behind for their son to fix. 34/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

He must be the doom of Troy, the end of the Bronze Age, and the Sea People all in one. This belief absolves him from any responsibility to rebuild a damaged civilization and allows him to flee from a complex and difficult world with his equally apocalypse-minded spouse. 33/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Maybe knowing his own virtue makes Odysseus think he should have been better than these other men, and keeps him from accepting that he couldn't have saved Troy. Even when it pains him, he's caught up in his personal greatness. 32/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The film also emphasizes Antinous' exploitation of the lower-class Sinon, an invention of Nolan's that makes Antinous' behavior as Penelope's guest part of a larger pattern of barbarism that he gets away with because he can. 31/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This conviction can't be unaffected by the traits he sees in his own class. Aside from Menelaus and Agamemnon, the perversion of xenia by Penelope's suitors shows how wealthy men invoke the rules that uphold civilization to their own benefit while undermining those rules with their actions. 30/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Odysseus' crimes pale compared to Agamemnon's (Tantalus was equally punished for the same transgression as Agamemnon) and he cares more for the values of civilization than Menelaus, but he still grants himself special responsibility. 29/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

...but unable to understand that the war could not have ended without savagery, murder, and abuse. The tragedy of Troy became inevitable once the war began. To Odysseus, though, he alone must be the one who made it happen and he alone(ish) must suffer exile for it. 28/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Odysseus still clings to the end to the idea that he, in his special intelligence, destroyed Troy with the Trojan Horse. He's clever enough to see that the war was caused by a combination of political and economic motives, sober enough to understand the pent-up bloodlust of the Greek army,... 27/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

...only being recognized by Telemachus and Penelope allows him to gain victory. After experiencing the fog of the lotus, he finally sees himself as a mere equal to other people, accepts their plans and aid, and loses the vision of Athena. Kind of. 26/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

In this version, Odysseus is forced to experience the ignorance that so many of his crew have already faced. He finally makes his way home by giving up control of his circumstances and letting the sea carry him helplessly. Once home, he atrempts to keep his identity secret, but... 25/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This is the same guy who steals the horses of Rhesus, steals the Palladium, shouts his name to Polyphemus after his escape, and devises to hear the sirens, all because he can. It's poetically appropriate that the film centers his stay with Calypso on a loss of knowledge. 24/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

These changes from Homer's version of the Odyssey serve merely to emphasize what kind of character Odysseus has always been. He's not a Smart Man in the sense that we're used to seeing in modern detective stories. He's a classical Trickster, one who operates by and for himself. 23/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This is most apparent in the interaction with Circe. Rather than entering Circe's house forewarned of her magic and carrying protection to intimidate her, Odysseus goes in ignorant and vulnerable, making his escape all the more miraculous. 22/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This is nothing that all of us in the audience don't already know. In the original story, Odysseus is constantly protected by Athena, with an occasional hand from other gods. By minimizing the presence of the gods in the story, Nolan makes Odysseus carry his own divinity with him. 21/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Odysseus is shown to play a god with the lives of others. Sure, he shares the same danger, but he reserves the privilige of knowledge to himself. Even knowledge that has no bearing on his goal, like the song of the sirens, must be his alone. The reason for this is that he is a Very Special Boy.20/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

...still asserts that he deserved to know what he was sacrificed for. (On a side note, Odysseus' excuse to Sinon reminds me of Andrey Tarkovsky's stories about manipulating his actors. I assume Nolan is familiar with the same stories, but have no idea if he intended the similarity.) 19/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Knowledge, not survival is the thing that matters to the dead. When he finally tells his men what he knows, they choose to take actions that they know will kill them. Sinon, meanwhile, cannot and does not claim that knowing the plot of the horse would have allowed him to live, but... 18/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

That's not to say that Odysseus bears no guilt. The deaths of his men should weigh on any commander, but Odysseus has more cause than most for regret. The sacrific of Sinon begins a pattern of Odysseus unfairly witholding information from men who lose their lives to fulfill his plans. 17/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Maybe Telemachus. Maybe Hermione and her husband. Maybe the Cicones. Maybe the peasants of Ithaca. Maybe even Orestes. All we know is that, somehow, civilization has survived to the present, and even xenia remains an unspoken law of society, though generally verbalized differently. 16/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

...she's had with men, to which she seems to have responded in kind. It would be quite a hard thing for one man to keep a civilization pulled together when so many people around him are doing little to maintain it. And yet, civilization endures. Who maintains it? 15/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Women, therefore, are charged with maintaining the civilization that men value, and men may find that women only value civilization as much as they do. Menelaus and Agamemnon, prepccupied with violence, are easily betrayed by their wives. Circe tells Odysseus what kinds of interactions... 14/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The rules of civilization extend, conditionally, to her household, but no longer apply to Telemachus when he leaves the house. Penelope's proscribed social role in the house can keep violence at bay as much as Clytemnestra's can invite it in or Circe's can control which violence is permitted. 13/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Penelope also intuits how the combination of class and gender make her untouchable in a way that Telemachus and the enslaved women are not. As long as she maintains civilization in her house, the men visiting her observe those rules. 12/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

When Penelope expresses helplessness to throw out her suitors she's underlining how women are tasked with maintaining xenia for the sake of men and punished if they break it without magic powers to back them up. However, she finds small ways to empower herself, such as with her weaving trick. 11/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Clytemnestra shows no such submissiveness, but her punishment is a source of relish for Menelaus, even as it disturbs Telemachus. Meanwhile, Circe and Calypso use the norms of xenia, as well as magic, to ensnare men and escape punishment when they perform the correct duties of a hostess. 10/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Helen even accepts blame for the Trojan War, after the film has blamed Agamemnon. It's gross and demeaning to see her apologize to Telemachus. After a flash of pride, we see her thoroughly beaten down for her transgression. 9/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Women have unusual leeway in the realm of the household and uniquely positioned to break or bend the rules of the home. Helen and Clytemnestra both find agency when they flout their hostly duties, and are villainized by men who tell their stories. 8/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The required actions of a host maintain a level of civility and avert direct violence. Circe articulates the hipocrisy of embracing these social norms while also making war. However, there is one party deeply involved in maintaining xenia, that Odysseus never fully acknowledges: women. 7/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Like Agamemnon attacking Troy, they require the veneer of a rationale to do what they really want. Still, the specter of the death of civilization hangs over the whole film. Maybe it's the fear of losing civilization that makes so many characters cling to the rules of xenia. 6/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

both Penelope and Odysseus frame any possible recourse for this offense as a crime, giving them an excuse to escape from civilization. The escape to the west is always linked to breach of loyalty, starting with Penelope's first proposal of it as a way to avoid going to Troy. 5/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

In this narrative, the massacre of the suitors is presented as a crime punishable by exile, rather than the righteous act of a man defending his household from sexual harrassment and degradation. Nolan, like us, recognizes that the suitors are the ones who have breached xenia, but... 4/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Civilization is continuing in the context of the story. Literacy will never be lost. And, in spite of Odysseus wishing it, no one will forget his victory at Troy. To quote one Jon Osterman, "Nothing ever ends." Why, then, does he keep proclaiming doom? Because it gives him an out.3/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I have seen no one acknowledge that we, the audience, are meant to understand that his regret is, itself, erroneous. This is made extremely clear by the ending, where Odysseus and Penelope wish for civilization and literacy to rise again. Everyone watching knows that they are incorrect. 2/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I am delighted to finally join into the Odyssey Discourse, and more delighted to rant about something that I haven't seen anyone else address. Let my grand insights elucidate it for all of you. People like to discuss how Odysseus' regret does not absolve him of the tragedies of the war, but... 1/38

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Working in law and/or government is a constant seesaw of laypeople telling you either that your profession is too corrupt or that you should be more corrupt, but for them, specifically.

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veramp.bsky.social @veramp.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Mrs. Lovett what have you done...

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Reposted by @veramp.bsky.social

Mariah McCourt @monsterteatime.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

It doesn't even take a minute to fill this out and add a short comment. Please do so. This is censorship and gross.

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Reposted by @veramp.bsky.social

J.A. Prentice @japrenticewrites.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

If the people about “woke” reimaginings of classics attended a single modern theatrical production of Shakespeare (or, well, anything) they would spontaneously combust.

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