DD is regularly belittling "The Odyssey" and I don't like it

[Anonymous]

Hahaha this is hilarious. OP, yes, she's doing it specifically to annoy you because she knows you love it.

Agree with others you should engage with her on it. Let her hate it. When I was in high school I decided I hated everything Charles Dickens ever wrote. I wrote scathing essays on A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations and rolled my eyes a lot.

But I learned my Dickens. And in college I took a literature course that focused on his work and came to appreciate it and even like it. I was just being a punk teenager and reacting to having something kind of shoved down my throat and told "this is good" and I wanted to decide for myself. So I did. That doesn't mean I didn't learn it.

If I were you, I'd want her to expand on that Sabrina Carpenter theory a bit because it sounds interesting. Not right, just interesting. Worth exploring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She is 100% trying to get under your skin, whether she knows it or not.

This. It’s just that simple. And maybe she doesn’t like it and feels dumb for not liking it, given your attitude about it, so it’s coming out in this way.

Engage her on her terms as much as you can and let the emotional part go. This is a very different generation than you. Did you love the story as a mid-teen or did you love it in college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love this thread.

How do you react, OP? I can see how this could be painful, but maybe it could be fun if you were both being playful and curious.

"Really? Wow! Can you play me some of your favorite lyrics? What makes you think of that comparison?"

Can you give her "Circe" or "Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller to compare? Maybe she'd like a more feminist-centered view of mythology from a more modern author.

TBH I had trouble with The Odyssey in school but enjoyed Miller's take as an audiobook.

Those were two of the best books I've ever read. Definitely in my top 10 and I read 50+ books a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of modern retellings of the Odyssey that are really engaging. I was a medieval English major, not Greek literature, but I love the Odyssey and have been reading it to my kids since they were 5. We read any story we can for kids about roman or greek gods. I think the way The Odyssey is presented in schools is very dry. Odysseus telling the cyclops his name is Nobody is awesome.

Have her read "A Thousand Ships" by Natalie Haynes- it's a female recounting of what happens after the Trojan war ends. It was so good!

I also want to say that it's not just girls who try their parents. My son gloms onto anything my DH likes and he disparages it. DH was the cub scout leader for years and then my son refused to go just because DH liked it. So DH had to be the cub scout leader for other people's sons since his own wouldn't show up.

This. The Penelopiad is a Margaret Atwood retelling of Penelope's story on Ithaca with a feminist (and very Atwoodian) bent. It's very mature so I'd check to make sure the content is suitable for this particular kid, but would be really interesting to read in tandem with the Odyssey, or as a follow up. It's not dry at all.

Christopher Nolan is in the midst of making a film adaptation of the Odyssey starring Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Ann Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, etc. No idea if it will be good or not but it's going to be a big epic movie and probably worth watching either way. I think it comes out in 2026.

[Anonymous]

Ask her to write a chapter of the Odyssey in the style of Sabrina, and a pop song in the style of Homer.


But seriously, you just have a trashy kid who chooses trashy role models.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of modern retellings of the Odyssey that are really engaging. I was a medieval English major, not Greek literature, but I love the Odyssey and have been reading it to my kids since they were 5. We read any story we can for kids about roman or greek gods. I think the way The Odyssey is presented in schools is very dry. Odysseus telling the cyclops his name is Nobody is awesome.

Have her read "A Thousand Ships" by Natalie Haynes- it's a female recounting of what happens after the Trojan war ends. It was so good!

I also want to say that it's not just girls who try their parents. My son gloms onto anything my DH likes and he disparages it. DH was the cub scout leader for years and then my son refused to go just because DH liked it. So DH had to be the cub scout leader for other people's sons since his own wouldn't show up.

This. The Penelopiad is a Margaret Atwood retelling of Penelope's story on Ithaca with a feminist (and very Atwoodian) bent. It's very mature so I'd check to make sure the content is suitable for this particular kid, but would be really interesting to read in tandem with the Odyssey, or as a follow up. It's not dry at all.

Christopher Nolan is in the midst of making a film adaptation of the Odyssey starring Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Ann Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, etc. No idea if it will be good or not but it's going to be a big epic movie and probably worth watching either way. I think it comes out in 2026.

Nolan? He's no Sabrina Carpenter!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love this thread.

How do you react, OP? I can see how this could be painful, but maybe it could be fun if you were both being playful and curious.

"Really? Wow! Can you play me some of your favorite lyrics? What makes you think of that comparison?"

Can you give her "Circe" or "Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller to compare? Maybe she'd like a more feminist-centered view of mythology from a more modern author.

TBH I had trouble with The Odyssey in school but enjoyed Miller's take as an audiobook.

Those were two of the best books I've ever read. Definitely in my top 10 and I read 50+ books a year.

I loved the Miller books. Agree, two of the best I've read.

I'm curious which translation they are reading in class. I recently acquired the Emily Wilson translation but haven't read it yet (first major translation by a woman into English). The Mitchell translation is more accessible than others I've read. Translation choice can make a real difference in how teens receive it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD (15) is reading "The Odyssey" for school. I am a professor of Greek literature, so I may be biased, haha. But I adore this book, maybe more than any book I've ever read. DD has...different views. She regularly announces that she hates or thinks it's bad, and that's okay, she can have her opinions. But she often makes jokes about its apparent poor quality and has even taken to mocking Homer. Yesterday she claimed at dinner that "Sabrina Carpenter could have written The Odyssey but Odysseus couldn't have written Bed Chem". This is starting to seem to me that she's trying to get under my skin. Why is she doing this? If she doesn't like a book that's fine, but why this persistent need to make fun of the book that plays a large foundation in my career?

I'm impressed that your daughter reads ancient Greek at age 15!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a lot of modern retellings of the Odyssey that are really engaging. I was a medieval English major, not Greek literature, but I love the Odyssey and have been reading it to my kids since they were 5. We read any story we can for kids about roman or greek gods. I think the way The Odyssey is presented in schools is very dry. Odysseus telling the cyclops his name is Nobody is awesome.

Have her read "A Thousand Ships" by Natalie Haynes- it's a female recounting of what happens after the Trojan war ends. It was so good!

I also want to say that it's not just girls who try their parents. My son gloms onto anything my DH likes and he disparages it. DH was the cub scout leader for years and then my son refused to go just because DH liked it. So DH had to be the cub scout leader for other people's sons since his own wouldn't show up.

This. The Penelopiad is a Margaret Atwood retelling of Penelope's story on Ithaca with a feminist (and very Atwoodian) bent. It's very mature so I'd check to make sure the content is suitable for this particular kid, but would be really interesting to read in tandem with the Odyssey, or as a follow up. It's not dry at all.

Christopher Nolan is in the midst of making a film adaptation of the Odyssey starring Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Ann Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, etc. No idea if it will be good or not but it's going to be a big epic movie and probably worth watching either way. I think it comes out in 2026.

Nolan? He's no Sabrina Carpenter!

lol this thread keeps getting better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (15) is reading "The Odyssey" for school. I am a professor of Greek literature, so I may be biased, haha. But I adore this book, maybe more than any book I've ever read. DD has...different views. She regularly announces that she hates or thinks it's bad, and that's okay, she can have her opinions. But she often makes jokes about its apparent poor quality and has even taken to mocking Homer. Yesterday she claimed at dinner that "Sabrina Carpenter could have written The Odyssey but Odysseus couldn't have written Bed Chem". This is starting to seem to me that she's trying to get under my skin. Why is she doing this? If she doesn't like a book that's fine, but why this persistent need to make fun of the book that plays a large foundation in my career?

I'm impressed that your daughter reads ancient Greek at age 15!

Fairly certain that was the point of the post. One of the best VBAs I have read in a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD (15) is reading "The Odyssey" for school. I am a professor of Greek literature, so I may be biased, haha. But I adore this book, maybe more than any book I've ever read. DD has...different views. She regularly announces that she hates or thinks it's bad, and that's okay, she can have her opinions. But she often makes jokes about its apparent poor quality and has even taken to mocking Homer. Yesterday she claimed at dinner that "Sabrina Carpenter could have written The Odyssey but Odysseus couldn't have written Bed Chem". This is starting to seem to me that she's trying to get under my skin. Why is she doing this? If she doesn't like a book that's fine, but why this persistent need to make fun of the book that plays a large foundation in my career?

I’ll take things that never happened for 500 Alex

[Anonymous]

OP has zero EQ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (15) is reading "The Odyssey" for school. I am a professor of Greek literature, so I may be biased, haha. But I adore this book, maybe more than any book I've ever read. DD has...different views. She regularly announces that she hates or thinks it's bad, and that's okay, she can have her opinions. But she often makes jokes about its apparent poor quality and has even taken to mocking Homer. Yesterday she claimed at dinner that "Sabrina Carpenter could have written The Odyssey but Odysseus couldn't have written Bed Chem". This is starting to seem to me that she's trying to get under my skin. Why is she doing this? If she doesn't like a book that's fine, but why this persistent need to make fun of the book that plays a large foundation in my career?

I'm impressed that your daughter reads ancient Greek at age 15!

Fairly certain that was the point of the post. One of the best VBAs I have read in a while.

It's for school.

[Anonymous]

It could be a bad translation.

I remember mercilessly mocking some books we had to read in High School. There was this state historical book "The Land Remembered" and the idea was interesting but the way people spoke in that book was just wildly unrealistic and painful to read. We tore it apart in class.

[Anonymous]

Maybe talking about how Homer didn't really write the Odyssey but wrote down the story that had been taught and passed on as part of an oral history and discuss how different the story flows because of that. Have a conversation about how the story would be presented differently if it had been intended to be a written story as opposed to a spoken story.