Trying to get a little more creative here
Jan 24– Books XI and XII from The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Butcher and Lang
I'm glad I figured out where the translators are listed. The edition linked on one of my lists isn't actually T5FSOB one. Even more confusing, since while it looks like all TF5SOB editions use the same translation, a few seemed to have different pagination. The break is also odd (which is part of what got me looking initially). We pick up about three quarters of the way through the underworld section (Book XI) and then read the first chunk of the Sirens (Book XII) without actually getting to the end. My instinct was to just cut XI and do all of XII (since this is the intent suggested by the reading guide, which only lists the Sirens section). But I skimmed the underworld section, and I like a couple parts of it (mostly the very beginning and the end) so I kept that and just marked where the reading is.
Commentary-wise, what hasn't been said about The Odyssey? It's the ur-roadtrip story, mythologies greatest hits, etc. I read it and The Iliad in high school or college, and I remember liking The Iliad better. That may have been burn out though. Reading them both back to back is a lot.
Instead, I'm going to ramble for a bit about what I'm going to call The 20% Cooler Principle. There's a popular (and fairly accurate) school of thought that comic books are the modern day version of mythology. I read an interview once with a writer (I forget who it was now) who explained how, even after he started getting hired by AAA companies, writing more serious books, etc., he always went back to his original inspiration: the comic books he read as a kid. The reason people liked his books, movies, etc. was that he always did the same thing that those comics did; they took an idea and pushed it up just one or two more notches. That's the zone that gets you cool/interesting/scary/funny (whatever tone is appropriate for the story you're telling) and surprising stories, but doesn't go off into absurdity. This contrasts with the "MAKE IT A BILLION PERCENT COOLER" approach that was super popular for a while in the late aughts (think Gurren Lagann) or that overlong series sometimes get caught in (sure we beat the emperor, the Dragon, Dragon Emperor, and the Dark God, but now we have to fight the Dark Dragon Emperor God of Doom!)
The Odyssey does this well. Odysseus doesn't have to go mano-a-mano with Zeus to get home, build a second Trojan horse that's actually an interdimensional space ship, or any other insanely over the top thing. What he does do is meet ghosts THAT DRINK BLOOD! That's 20% creepier than regular ghosts. Argos doesn't turn out to secretly be Cerberus and eat all the suitors, he's just a dog that lives for 20+ years so he can see Odysseus one more time. Odysseus doesn't romance the sirens (and he's not rationalist enough to just totally ignore them). Instead, he has his crew do the smart thing and bind him so he can't get them killed, but still listens.
The best comic book heroes are the ones that still have normal human problems or are only "a little" super. My dad loves Captain America because he can't just punch out every Nazi WW2 in one shot. Spider-Man is popular because he still has to pay rent and get stood up on dates (or used to). Batman is more popular than Superman because he does sometimes get his ass kicked and have to limp back to the Batcave to figure out a better plan for round two.
20% Cooler. Homer gets it.
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