A Visualized Reading of The Odyssey: Book 1, Produced by Andrew Benson Brown

Really enjoyed this reading! Great editing and performing by all.

By Jove!

Thanks all!

Linda, Roy, Paul—appreciate your kind comments. An academy award, ha yes—there’s not enough people out there making poetry videos yet to warrant its own award category, though I imagine that will change in the future as more people do this.

Joe—right on about James. He was the first person I thought of bringing onto the project before anyone else was part of it. A perfect casting choice that brings just the right gravitas to everything.

Cheryl—I actually did enjoy the Nolan movie overall, just as a movie, even though he totally inverted Odysseus’s character and made him a drug-addled, PTSD wimp. In any case, it’s the biggest R-rated movie ever now, a massive commercial success, so the guy must be doing something right. Need to take some pages out of that guy’s playbook so I can make a billion dollars too (for the glory of poesy, of course).

James—still racking my brain on what to call this new genre. ‘Visualized reading’ is maybe the most accurate, but kind of lackluster. ‘Videobook’ is even more lackluster. ‘Cinematic edition’ I like best, but in a lot of ways it’s more like a moving book than a movie, per say, with the way the pages of text are integrated and the characters are sometimes illustrated in Aedan’s style. There’s a YouTube channel where they visualize children’s books, I think they call them ‘cinematic read alouds,’ though aside from snazzy introductions they mostly just pan across the pages. The Poetry Foundation has a handful of Youtube videos where they basically just make the poems into little animated movies. Was playing around with greek root words and came up with ‘eikophonic’ (‘eikon’—”image”; ‘phone’—”voice/sound”) and ‘cinemythos’ (mythos as in story—so “moving story” or some such). I think ‘eikophonic’ is precise but maybe too pretentious-sounding. Anyway, all this is to say: it is your job to come up with a new name for this … sell your business and get to it!

Oh Andrew, this is AMAZING. What a thrill to see Solot’s translation of Homer so delightfully rendered with yours, and James’, and Joseph’s, and Katarina’s voices– and all of your faces imagined on such heroic bodies!! It is truly a delight and a feast for the mind, the eyes, and the ears– I can’t wait for the whole thing!!! If this can get into the hands of educators, I think the TicTok generation might find themselves reading the Odyssey (and maybe even other poetry) with gusto!!! I love the new idiom– I think “eikophonic cinemythos” might just be the term…. the innovation and novel approach you have created is refreshing and so very enjoyable on so many levels!!! I heard things in the poetry I did not hear before, because your voices and the images (both Aedan’s and your AI) made so much come alive that bypassed me …. to make something 2800 years old come alive with such vibrancy and relevance in this postmodern age is truly an achievement!!! I hope for every success for the project– for Michael, for you, for the SCP, and the fine cast!!! Bravi to all!!!

Extraordinary! If this was an olympic event it certainly would have received the GOLD.
Looking forward to the next episode!