High on generic Zyrtec and caffeine. And the audience, which includes a few understandably perturbed infants—exposed on a hilltop, Oedipus-style?—is in a frenzy tonight. Everyone goes “Oooooooh” when the Queen of Argos compares her daughter to Aphrodite—so hubris is where Brooklyn draws the line? And when the heroes saddle up a few giant scorpions they’ve just defeated, the woman behind me: “Oh no they didn’t.”
Obama’s surge has been lighting up the Taliban. Go ahead and stamp that sentence “2010.” Plus I’m wearing plaid on plaid. Their questionable fashion choices—burlap, lace-up sandals—make this culture difficult to put seriously on film. But can I say something crazy? Couture isn’t Roman, but Greek. It’s gods and monsters. Check out Io’s rolled-felt collar thingy. And Medusa, whose backstory in this version involves her violation and subsequent transformation, from Athena’s disgust, into the creature whose gaze turns men to stone. It will be her severed head raised to stop the beast from devouring Andromeda, the princess whose death alone may spare the city. Roberto Calasso: “And the conflict begins with the abduction of a girl, or with the sacrifice of a girl. And the one is continually becoming the other. It was the ‘merchant wolves,’ arriving by ship from Phoenicia, who carried off tauropárthenos from Argos. Tauropárthenos means ‘the virgin dedicated to the bull.’ Her name was Io. Like a beacon signaling from mountain to mountain, this rape lit the bonfire of hatred between the two continents. Europe and Asia never stopped fighting each other, blow answering blow.” Well, I’m glad that’s over.
Trying to theorize the hero: like Alice, he just needs to get the weapon to where it needs to be. Theorizing Pegasus: a horse that can fly, i.e. a horse in 3D. And the shield in whose reflection Perseus tracks Medusa? Obviously, a movie screen. The Kraken, that “elemental monster” born of Hades: a toddler I know from the playground. On the idea of the demi-god I get stuck, until Carley: It’s a dude with a trust fund, silly.
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