07: Madeline Miller's Circe: Brilliant Fan Fiction? Why it Works!
From Culture Nightcap · 44:19
Show by culturenightcap
In this episode, Katie and Chris discuss Madeline Miller's Circe. They unpack how Miller retells the Odyssey witch's story in first person, weaving Circe’s origins as Helios’ daughter into a wider web of Greek myths (Scylla, Medea, the Minotaur, and more) while building creatively from small cues in the original sources. Along the way they talk big themes, immortality vs. mortality, the gods’ cruelty and stasis, Circe’s exile, her discovery of pharmakeia (witchcraft), and her complex encounter with Odysseus, plus a striking closing quote about the gods being “unchanging.” The episode widens into a conversation about what makes adaptations work, praising Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, critiquing the recent Wuthering Heights film, and comparing great retellings to fan fiction that deepens and reopens the original. Feedback and ideas! Get in touch with us! [email protected] please remember to leave a star rating and review wherever you're listening! Cheers!
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- 09: Passion, Poetry, and the Art of Destruction: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
- 08: Dana Gioia: On Art, Translation, Adaptation, Faith, and Why Poetry Will Always Matter
- 06: Be Weird! Where'd You Go Bernadette, Motherhood, and an Adaptation That Made It All Boring
- 05: The Eyes of God are Watching Us: Woody Allen's Confrontation with Nihilism
- 04: The Unsayable Things: The Art and Ethics of Memoir
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- 00: Welcome to Culture Nightcap!
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