The off-screen drama surrounding Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster version of the Odyssey stepped up a gear overnight, as the novelist Joyce Carol Oates sought to defend the film-maker from an attack by classicist Emily Wilson. “Rather than disagreeing with interpretations of Homer in a collegial manner,” said Oates, “this person, who has benefited enormously from Nolan’s film, speaks in the crude language of Maga folks attacking someone with ideas that differ from hers. Nolan’s film has been widely applauded by critics, perhaps partly explaining why the pitch of Wilson’s objections shocked many. Wilson finding Nolan’s rendition of the character as relatively one-dimensional is likely to have taken the team behind the film aback. Sales of Wilson’s translation, and those by others, have seen a significant uptick over the past month, with UK bookseller TGJones reporting a 1,560% rise in searches for the Iliad this month.