When the only Homer they know is Homer Simpson.
american culture
Submitted 4 months ago by nave@lemmy.ca to [deleted]
https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/1a83e3eb-f9bf-4306-ab84-a037f91f5660.webp
Comments
Enkers@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
Fun fact: the voice actor for Homer Simpson also voiced Homer (the Greek one) in the Disney Hercules animated series.
Lenny@lemmy.zip 4 months ago
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Fox should sue those lazy Greeks for stealing the name.
sdcSpade@lemmy.zip 4 months ago
Even The Simpsons covered the Odyssey at some point though.
mhague@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The world doesn’t revolve around America, but you’ll see idiots in Bumbfuck, Romania talking about Soros and wokeism. It’s got to be exhausting.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 4 months ago
Soros is a Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust and moved to America afterwards btw
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Even more of a Nazi dog whistle than when the American right does it?
mhague@lemmy.world 4 months ago
“The Jews are trying to replace us.” ?
Orban / the party in charge were saying Soros was using his money and power to flood Romania with immigrants.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Still exhausting!
OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 4 months ago
I find that people get more ticked off about the woke in non American countries even if it really doesn’t involve them (it should) but even then they increase their hostility because of it
modifier@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
As an American, I am going to dine on this single example as if it disproves the idea that we are insular and provincial hicks for the next decade.
CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
nah, it just proves that brits are as stupid as you are, which is, tbh, is not a surprise /s
ThomasCrappersGhost@feddit.uk 4 months ago
We had Brexit. We can’t say nothing.
FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The /s is unnecessary, I can assure you we are stupid and nobody should be surprised.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Certainly stashing it away in the ammo belt.
bulwark@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The problem is, I have this big bag of stones in my glass house, and I want to throw them at the UK for being dumb, but if I do, I also have to admit the US education system is trash.
starman2112@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I’ll throw that stone for you
The British education system is almost as bad as the American education system. The biggest difference between our cultures is that a lot of Americans are willing to point out how incredibly racist our country is
MutilationWave@lemmy.world 4 months ago
And a lot of far right Americans have taken over local school boards to ban books that talk about gay people existing or the fact that sex is something that happens, among other nefarious purposes. And a religious organization in Texas writes pretty much all the textbooks used across the country. It can’t be this bad in the UK can it?
Maggoty@lemmy.world 4 months ago
So much broken glass, was it worth it? Now I have to go get the broom.
i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
I mean, I have no qualms with recognizing the US education system is garbage… It gives me more fire to try to improve it.
BakerBagel@midwest.social 4 months ago
I can do both. I’m ot gonna let some backwater pit like the UK insult my home, especially since the UK is essentially completely dependent on the US at this point.
thebigslime@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Both can be true. We can be trash in different ways!
DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The Illiad and the Odyssey are classics and hardly American culture. They are western culture as a whole. No idea what the drama is about but some dude not knowing what the Odyssey is, is the same as not knowing any other classic. (There are too many to count, but not knowing the most popular ones are is like not knowing the titanic sank.) (Spoilers)
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
That’s the joke.
_chris@lemmy.world 4 months ago
To be fair, the only people left on Xitter are idiots
Krudler@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The world is awash in morons and they aren’t localized to that venue, although by way of it’s very structure, it’s a venue that strongly attracts people incapable of holding two thoughts at the same time.
As G Carlin would have said, think how stupid the average person is and realize 50% are stupider than that. This is the world we live in - where the trivial thoughts emerging from society’s dreck take have equal stage and prominence to expertise and wisdom
Taleya@aussie.zone 4 months ago
$10 says the dipshit in question did a frantic google, saw ‘ulysses’ and went james joyce.
Hupf@feddit.org 4 months ago
WilloftheWest@feddit.uk 4 months ago
Liam’s a tool. The UK absolutely does teach the Odyssey, and has done so at least as far back as my youth.
BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 4 months ago
most of the time someone says something wasnt taught in school its because that person straight up didnt pay attention in class
JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 months ago
I suspect there is significant overlap between the kids who were complaining in math class that what they were learning was useless along with the adults who claim math class didn’t teach them “how to do taxes”. (As if you do anything other than fill out a form, anyways.)
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Wait we were supposed to pay attention in school now it makes sense
DakRalter@thelemmy.club 4 months ago
Mine didn’t. We did Buddy, The Crucible, Animal Farm and Shakespeare from what I remember. First I heard of the Odyssey was when I was 19 and DW did a retelling of it on Arthur. When I saw a copy of the story in the shop I worked at, I got it so I could read the actual story.
WilloftheWest@feddit.uk 4 months ago
Were you not aware of it at any point? I don’t necessarily mean as part of the GCSE curriculum. I’ve been aware of the Odyssey and the Iliad from the “Ancient Greeks” part of our primary school curriculum back in year 4. Of course we weren’t analysing texts, but I’d expect any ten year old to be capable of rattling off some major plot points like blinding Polyphemus, or sailors plugging their ears with wax against the sirens and tying Odysseus to the mast.
someguy3@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You haven’t experienced The Odyssey until you’ve read it in it’s original Klingon.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I have to admit that I have not read the Illias or the Odyssey in school, either. We were made read books in school intendet to make children shy away from books, so they won’t touch any of them after school ever again.
Luckily I had read loads of good books by that time, so I knew that only a few are as horrible as the ones they made us read in school.
NIB@lemmy.world 4 months ago
There are basic versions of these stories with big drawings, mostly made for kids. Basically manga. When i was a kid(in Greece), 35 years ago, i had this
www.stratikis.gr/wp-content/…/iliada-nea.jpg
This is Iliad and it was cooler than Odyssey. Badass dudes with almost divine powers fighting other dudes, while Gods are taking sides and fucking things up. Basically shonen.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I first read the classic translation by Schwab when I was ten or eleven.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
It does feel a lot like that, doesn’t it? Why else would the Bronte sisters be on the curriculum if not to snuff out any interest in literature?
Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It could be worse. We read Brecht and Kafka. Several works of them. I’ve never encountered worse waste of paper and ink than those idiots. And the rest was not much better.
arken@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Only boring kids would find Wuthering Heights & Jane Eyre boring. Both books would be excellent choices in any curriculum. If you wanna talk boring early 19th century authors, Jane Austen is the name you’re looking for.
teije9@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
the illias and the odyssey are ancient greek literature, I don’t think they’re that fun to read.
But, you still should be taught about their existence in history.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They were more fun to read than the sh-t the forced down our throats in school. At least Homer knew how to write a story.
qevlarr@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The Odyssey was like the Bible before the Bible.
FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Only in that it was widely published but there are others too like the Epic of Gilgamesh.
AccountMaker@slrpnk.net 4 months ago
The Illiad was like the ancient Greek Bible because it was used to provide behavioural guidelines and views common to all Greeks. It was a text central to any Greek’s education. How does a leader act? Read the Illiad. How are battles waged? Read the Illiad. What is the relation between humans and gods? Read the Illiad.
Alexander the Great was known to carry a copy of the Illiad with him at all times, and many philosophers routinely used excerpts from it to illustrate their points. And people would reference it like we reference things from the Bible in the west (Judas, turn water into wine, cross to bear, turn the other cheek etc)
NIB@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Iliad was not a religious text(or even a text for many centuries). It was just a story of a dude trying to get back home.
Tin@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I know you know this and likely just mistyped, but for clarity, the Iliad is about the war itself. The Odyssey is about the dude trying to get back home.
They weren’t religious texts per se, but they were certainly cultural touchstones which contain important lessons about the human condition, death, love, and what’s truly important in life. They would fill a role similar to histories in the Old Testament, probably, like the book of Ruth.
R3D4CT3D@midwest.social 4 months ago
is this why the miniseries is trending on some torrent sites?? haha!
FreshLight@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Wait… some people don’t know the Odyssey?
nifty@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I am tired of western Cinema jerking off to same old stories, which tbh aren’t the pinnacle of literature or storytelling. There are so many cultural epics which are deserving of the big screen, but unfortunately this western culture bias keeps the general audience from being exposed to any of it.
It wouldn’t matter, but the issue is then you have utter fucking illiterates and philistines who believe that only western writers, thinkers or philosophers came up with anything good. New flash, dudes, many, many of the western writers took their influence from non-western sources.
WraithGear@lemmy.world 4 months ago
What! He never saw Wishbone’s the oddesey?
SparrowHawk@feddit.it 4 months ago
"the world doesn’t revolve around your country"country Said the user from UK.
Silly anglophone countries, the world actually revolves around the chad mediterranean
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 4 months ago
I prefer to watch it in its original Japanese.
SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Just play “Age of Mythology”. Duh.
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
The American version has more Laser-shark-launching gun-swords though fewer exposed boobs.
niktemadur@lemmy.world 4 months ago
instead we studied useful things
Have you ever seen any British television quiz game shows? The amount of world geography and history most contestants seem to know is abismal, makes me scratch my head and seriously wonder what many of these people are doing there, in a game show about knowledge. What are they even doing there, in the delusion that they have a shot.
“What is the capital of Denmark?”
“Erm… pass.”This person’s comment is just another drop in the bucket in the sorry state of things.
Master@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Its not even that great of a mini van. You can get better for cheaper!
rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 4 months ago
…may we see the tweets?
Vespair@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Meanwhile on tiktok British people are apparently mad at Americans for not knowing or caring about Robbie Williams
yournamehere@lemm.ee 4 months ago
may nigel farage further dumb down the island people.
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 months ago
Most cultured Brit
Reminds me of this: www.tiktok.com/@emanrtm/…/7348507560032439585?lan…
L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
The Odyssey is an American epic? Wtf, I love America now!
Fontasia@feddit.nl 4 months ago
How are you supposed to enjoy the music of Civilisation 7 without knowing The Odyssey?
On a similar note, you’d think the guy on the right would counter with Beowulf
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
I’m in Canada.
I wasn’t taught anything about the Odyssey or Iliad
But I at least know that there ancient and Greek.some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
Did “history of the world” not mention Homer?
djsoren19@yiffit.net 4 months ago
It’s wild that the U.K. doesn’t teach the Odyssey, I thought their whole thing was stealing other peoples’ culture and pretending they owned it now.
Lemming421@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Shakespeare invented literature, so clearly there’s no value in teaching anything from before him…
DmMacniel@feddit.org 4 months ago
You haven’t experienced Shakespear unless you read it in the original klingon.
BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 4 months ago
Fair point.
ScrollerBall@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Well Greece wasn’t ever a British colony, so they didn’t have as many opportunities to steal artifacts and culture as they did with, say, Egypt.
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 4 months ago
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin_Marbles
en.wikipedia.org/…/Category:Ancient_Greek_and_Rom…
slartibartfast@lemm.ee 4 months ago
I’m sure they had ample opportunity to steal Greek artefacts from when Greeks invaded Egypt and India.
Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Also see: the Ionian Islands from 1815 to 1862
stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 months ago
I’ve heard of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, does that count?
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 4 months ago
That translation has fallen out of favor with contemporary scholars but you get the gist.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 months ago
Is it even taught in the US? 🤔
I didn’t read it for school. I just liked reading and had this gnarly book featuring all the greatest hits of Greek mythology growing up.
0ops@lemm.ee 4 months ago
I read it for school
skooma_king@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Definitely was in the rural, redneck school I went to.
austinfloyd@ttrpg.network 4 months ago
Went to a mediocre high school in the US, and I had an English/writing course where the only materials were the Aeneid, Illiad, Odyssey, and Mythology by Edith Hamilton.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
My 10th grade English class studied a small section of it, like one self contained story.
GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I read both The Illiad and a shortened version of The Odyssey in school.
arudesalad@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Just looked it up, the Odyssey can be taught in the UK but it is rarely chosen because Shakespeare is easier to teach and students who pick Shakespeare get better grades on average.
ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 4 months ago
We don’t like to brag about it but we fought the Brits in the War of 1812, one of the things we took from England was Greek literature. In turn, we Americans lost the definition of jams vs jelly and the superior spelling of “colour”.
metaldream@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Odd that it’s a choice between them. We learned Shakespeare and Homer where I am in the US.
casmael@lemm.ee 4 months ago
……………I did the odyssey at various points man I think the guy in the tweet is just Polyphemus or smthn like ‘I don’t know who this nobody guy is, ain’t never heard of no odyssey before bro’
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Not in secondary school but I did the Illiad, the Anaed, the Odyssey and Ovids Metamorphoses in 6th form college.
wingsfortheirsmiles@feddit.uk 4 months ago
I did study it at school but had to take Classical Civilisation for one of my GCSE options. Our default in English Literature was a Shakespeare work as previously mentioned (Merchant of Venice for me). I also recall studying An Inspector Calls?