What’s the shape of “The Odyssey”?

When Christopher Nolan released his latest film, “The Odyssey”, this summer, there was much discourse (too much?) about its historical accuracy, its casting, and how it held up against Homer’s beloved 3000 year-old epic.

For us here at Presentation Thinking AKA the “Storyteller’s Study Club,” we were thinking about another book—Christopher Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots—wherein Booker lays out 7 “shapes” for all stories. In one shape he dubs “The Quest,” Booker heavily relies on Homer’s The Odyssey as a reference point. 

Mikey and Molly get into how Nolan’s film rendition of “The Odyssey” follows (and doesn’t) the shape of “The Quest” that Booker so thoroughly laid out in his study of storytelling——and how it can make for one of the most memorable stories ever told.

We also apply what we know about film and visual storytelling to discuss Nolan’s mise-en-scene, dialogue choices, and terrible sound-mixing.

What’s in the Spice Cabinet?

The trailer, because we can’t link it in IMAX:

• via YouTube

Christopher Booker’s book we reference heavily:

• The Seven Basic Plots
• We discuss this story shape in further detail in Episode #33

Emily Wilson’s translation:

• Here 
• Her scathing review of Nolan’s film, “An Uncomplicated Man”

For further reading (Substack recommendations vetted by Molly)

• A great epics reading list 
• The different elements of horror in "The Odyssey"
• “Christopher Nolan ruined Circe”
• “How should an Odysseus be?”