Required Reading
This week: remembering Betye Saar on her 100th birthday, saving a women’s sculpture garden, Emily Wilson breaks the internet, climate scientists on OnlyFans, and more.
The classicists' voices are growing louder, as Emily Wilson, renowned for her controversial Odyssey translation, criticizes Christopher Nolan's film adaptation in the London Review of Books. Wilson highlights Nolan's portrayal of Odysseus as a reluctant warlord, arguing that it negates the film's exploration of humanity and morality, and fails to depict the victims' perspectives.
Critics also point out the dehumanization of the Trojans, with their masks obscuring their identities and the lack of emotional response to their deaths.
In a separate matter, curator Claire Mander's Artist's Garden in London, a public sculpture garden dedicated to women artists, faces the threat of demolition. Mander founded the space in 2021 to challenge the history of sexist monuments, and its defenders are rallying to save it as a place for community, repose, and celebration.
Meanwhile, students in India have taken to the streets to protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party. Their movement, dubbed the "Cockroach Janata Party," stems from a Supreme Court justice's comparison of unemployed young people to cockroaches. Despite the sensationalist media coverage, Arundhati Roy argues that dismissing the protests as mere hype would be misleading, as the struggle for justice in India involves broader issues.
Written by urgent.news from Hyperallergic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
