The Author Of Greta’s Favorite Book! (Of 2018): Madeline Miller On 'Circe'
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2018
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you were bored by Homeric epics and Greek mythology in high school and college, Nerdette highly encourages you to reconsider.
“There is a reason these stories have lasted for 3,000 years,” said Madeline Miller, author of Greta’s favorite book of 2018, a novelization of The Odyssey called Circe.
“[These stories] are incredibly insightful about human nature,” Miller said. “Culture has changed and the way we go to war has changed, but the stories we tell about war and about loss and grief – even things like post-traumatic stress disorder – the Greeks understood all of that.”
Miller said she novelized the story of Circe, a witch from The Odyssey who turns men into pigs, because she wanted more freedom to explore the character.
“There were things I couldn’t answer in papers that I wanted to answer in a different way,” she said.
Miller talked with Greta about the book, what makes literary canon, and more about turning men into pigs.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This fall, W bez invites you to our upcoming live events. |
| 0:05.0 | Join us in person for smart discussions, heartfelt storytelling, and more. |
| 0:09.0 | Check out the full calendar now at W be easy.org |
| 0:12.6 | slash events. |
| 0:13.6 | From W be easy Chicago this is Nurdette |
| 0:19.6 | I'm Greta Johnson and Nurdette is a place |
| 0:21.9 | where we talk to your favorite or soon to be |
| 0:24.0 | favorite people about how their passions drive what they do. |
| 0:27.8 | This week we are talking to a woman whose passion is very, very, very long, very old poetry in other languages. |
| 0:35.5 | Doesn't that sound really exciting? |
| 0:37.3 | I am here to tell you, it honestly should be, |
| 0:39.4 | we're talking to Madeline Miller, |
| 0:40.6 | and she is the author of, by far hands hands down my favorite book of 2018. |
| 0:45.0 | She's written two books now, Song of Achilles, which is also excellent. |
| 0:48.3 | But this year she came out with this book called Circei that is just gorgeous. |
| 0:52.1 | They're both based on those really old, really long poems by |
| 0:56.4 | Homer. We have the Iliad and the Odyssey. In case you don't remember, the Iliad is just about a really long |
| 1:02.3 | war and then the Odyssey is about some of those |
| 1:04.4 | soldiers from that war trying to get back home. They're led by this dude named Odysseus. They end up on this |
| 1:10.4 | island that's run by this witch, that which turns some of the dudes into pigs, that |
| 1:14.8 | which is named Cercy. And that is what Cercy is all about. It is such a great book. I am so |
| 1:21.0 | excited to share this interview with you. |
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