Sir Christopher Nolan.

I know many people were grumpy about the "hook" at the start of that essay. But if you can't make a startling, maybe-funny literary juxtaposition/analogy at the start of an essay about Carson, when can you ever do it?

Thank you. I'm glad you picked that up. For instance, I included discussion of Carson's complicated relationship to gender, because I find it very relatable.

On a personal level, I feel honored that I've met Carson. On a different personal level, I'm glad that the Nobel is celebrating someone shy, peculiar, intense. May all the weird/funny/creative/dark/introverted people of the world live long and prosper.

Many congratulations to Anne Carson for the well-deserved Nobel Prize! This is also great news for Translation, Classics, Poetry, the breaking of generic and disciplinary boundaries, and the fact that you don't have to fit a pre-existing mould to have a brilliant, successful career.

But also let's not assume that "the public" cares only about whatever the latest little bubble may be. That's patronizing and factually wrong. Do not descend into the Charybdis of Discourse!

The Parthenon is just as sublime as you have heard. Walk through the thick late summer air past the kids on skateboards and the guys strumming guitars, and here is the Temple. Step inside, turn a corner, and WHOOOOOAH, there is the goddess. [Made by Alan LeQuire, after Phidias.]

Oh I hadn't realized, both Mary and I cite that poem in our latest books!

Thank you. I think I would have enjoyed the first viewing significantly more if I'd read some negative reviews beforehand, and set my expectations a little lower (rather than all those pieces saying, 10/10, best film in history of humanity).

Sometimes the internet nurtures a paranoid and hostile affect, rather than what you might usually call "thinking". This is a very minor example of a widespread and scary phenomenon.

I hope so, of course! But it might perhaps be more productive to discuss all that after I finish this translation- which will take a while.

I suppose it's a comforting distraction from the actual disasters of the world.

I've been surprised by what is apparently "news" now, including: 1. "Hollywood film gets some glowing and some negative reviews". 2. "Enthusiastic classicist translator continues multi-year project." Next up: 3. The true religious affiliation of the Pope.