I have always loved mythology.
Perhaps it comes from being born into a Catholic family?
Since I was young, I have had a weakness for things that sit just outside explanation.
Miracles. Saints. Fairies. Myths. Strange creatures wandering through old stories.
Even the name sai sai achilles came from somewhere around there.
You know, Odyssey is finally being made into a film.
A colossal myth assembled by capitalism itself.
Hollywood actors arriving from every direction to tell a story that has somehow survived for nearly three thousand years.
Thinking about Odysseus, I even prepare a pair of ancient Greek-style sandals for you.
Circe Gladiator Strap Sandals, Odyssey Midnight
"Do you remember when Mary-Kate Olsen seemed to spend entire summers in gladiator sandals in 2008?
I do.
I was probably staring at paparazzi photos instead of doing homework.
They feel a little bit cleaner now.
This summer I intend to walk through Tokyo as if I have been lost at sea for ten years!
"
As for Christopher Nolan's film, I want to know absolutely nothing.
I have been avoiding every article, every photograph, every rumour.
I would like to meet it properly in a dark cinema.
To be honest, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were not always easy companions.
Sometimes I was fascinated, sometimes I nearly fell asleep.
Such is the privilege of a classic.
Instead, I thought I would talk about a painting I have loved when I was young.
John William Waterhouse's Ulysses and the Sirens (1891).
It depicts one of the most famous episodes from the Odyssey.
The Sirens.
Creatures whose songs are so irresistible that sailors steer directly towards their own destruction.
Frankly, it is exactly the sort of ridiculous idea I adore.
To survive the encounter, Odysseus devises a plan.
The sailors fill their ears with beeswax.
He orders himself tied to the mast.
So he may listen but not move..
So from now on, reading this painting through Adorno will be very much entertaining!
The modern Enlightenment subject is driven by a desire to preserve itself.
Adorno calls this self-preservation.
In simple terms, it is the desire to remain oneself.
To maintain an identity. To survive intact.
But what must a person endure in order to do that?
That, according to Adorno, is exactly what we see in this painting.
The one who gets to experience art is Odysseus.
He hears the Sirens’ song.
Yet he is not free.
He is tied to the mast.
The sailors are different.
They can move. They can work. They keep rowing.
But they never hear the song.
That is what makes the image so interesting.
The Enlightenment promised freedom and happiness, yet something feels slightly wrong here.
Nobody gets everything.
Odysseus hears the song, but he cannot act on it.
The sailors survive, but they remain excluded from the experience altogether.
Even happiness appears at a distance.
Something seen rather than possessed.
Adorno believed art occupies a similarly strange position in modern society.
It remains desirable.
People still long for it.
Yet that longing often passes through us before it can become anything more.
The capitalist is not entirely free.
The worker is not entirely fulfilled.
Both are caught within the same structure.
For Adorno, Odysseus is not simply a hero from an ancient epic.
He is a remarkably modern figure.
His survival depends on self-denial.
The ship passes safely, but only because he suppresses his own desires.
He wants to follow the song.
Instead, he binds himself.
That contradiction is precisely the point.
To preserve oneself, one must continuously restrain oneself.
To survive, one must give something up.
Adorno saw this as an allegory for modern life itself.
In that sense, Odysseus feels far less ancient than we might like to believe, feels strangely modern...
Today information arrives every few seconds.
Images appear instantly.
Algorithms recommend music.
Netflix recommends films.
Everything is available and accessible.
Sometimes it sucks though honestly, of course, I am not about to disappear into the mountains and reject modern life.
I just keep wondering about something else.
Like,
How many Sirens' songs do we pass each day?
And among them, how many truly stop us in our tracks?
...
Anyway, this summer I will be walking around Tokyo in our modern style of Greek sandals.
and I will happily buy a ticket to Christopher Nolan's enormous capitalist myth!
Perhaps that contradiction is simply part of being human..
Adorno would not approve.
I am going anyway :)