I’m not sure how many of you have been to see Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the Odyssey, but for the movie buffs here at Dez, we’re very focused on it.
Katie Davis at the helm today as Josh Culling is airborne coming home from his English getaway. We start with a follow-up on Nathaniel Beach’s frustration with Elon Musk’s threat of an AI-made Odyssey, as Madeline Nagler gives us her take on the film – which seemed to be mainly suffering. I’ll admit I loved it. It was an edge of my seat, popcorn munching, delightful experience, though I think I’m betraying my English literature background by saying so. (Sorry Homer!)
On another note, Kaci and I talk about Gen Z, a generation that certainly gives us plenty to discuss. Say what you want about us, but at least we’re creative. Dumb phones and dumber reasons to gather community mean increased human connection and quality of life. Just what we need when AI is threatening the integrity of our classic literature. Beach might just be on to something.
Lastly, Sam Jefferies provides insight into food deserts, and how we may have Tesco, a British supermarket chain and undercover spin doctor, to blame.
We wish you all a relaxing weekend ahead. Thanks, as always, for reading along with us.
Here we go.
A Movie Review.
The Odyssey by Homer, Produced by Christopher Nolan.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is the most expensive shrug of the summer. It was shot entirely on IMAX cameras, it runs just under three hours, and it throws one enormous set piece after another at you with a technical precision no other director can match.
None of it makes you care.
Matt Damon plays Odysseus as a closed door, and while Anne Hathaway’s Penelope and Tom Holland’s Telemachus are supposed to be what he’s fighting to get back to, neither is given enough to play. The jumbled timeline interrupts every feeling with more information. When Odysseus finally reaches Ithaca, the reunion lands like a plot point instead of a release. Nolan built an extraordinary machine and forgot to put anyone inside it.
The action is huge and it means nothing, because there is nothing at stake.
– Madeline Nagler
Screenagers.
CBS News. Some Gen Zers swap their smartphones for “dumb” phones to curb social media habits.
Gen Z is trading in their smartphones for minimalist “dumb” phones to curb their extensive social media use. Some go fully old‑school with flip phones that only call and text, while others use devices that keep practical apps like maps, Uber, and Spotify but block social platforms entirely. Experts are looking at smartphone‑driven social media use on the same spectrum as other addictions, and argue that turning constant access into occasional access is often enough to improve sleep quality, focus, and mood.
The irony is how we’re finding out about this newfound trend… it’s being posted all over TikTok and Instagram. The dumb‑phone switch has its own aesthetic now – they’re filming flip phone unboxings, day‑by‑day “phone sober” updates, and DIML (Day in My Life) without social media videos everywhere. Leave it to Gen Z to make unplugging go viral.
– Kaci Donegan
Weird Generation, Creative Parties.
The Atlantic. Gen Z Is Testing the Limits of How Weird Parties Can Get.
This headline caught my attention because I was just invited to a “Bring Yo Thang” party. The rule for attendance: bring your current obsession. Whether it be mahjong, a new type of wine, or your favorite pair of shoes (on or off your feet).
I think the explanation is simple. Gen Z is bringing back the village. We want community, and we want it to be easy while exciting and affordable. The best way to do that? Laid-back house gatherings with a fun idea. Chips and salsa, music, not enough chairs or space for everyone to relax comfortably; it’s like the after-party for 9th grade homecoming all over again. Except include funny presentations, a farewell celebration for Spirit Airlines, a spelling bee judged by your parents, and the deep desire to make life outside of work fun again.
Say what you will about Gen Zers, but we have full ‘5 to 9s’ and we will do weird things to keep it that way.
– Katie Davis
Tesco Roots.
The New Yorker. The Myth of the Food Desert.
I didn’t expect “The Myth of the Food Desert,” a 3,543-word essay which functions partially as a scholarly review, to be a rollicking good read. I was wrong. Kelefa Sanneh’s latest missive is funny and insightful, laughing up its sleeves at self-important academics who seized and ran with the term “food desert” in the late aughts, without realizing it was a term coined by the British supermarket chain Tesco in a marketing effort to re-invade American neighborhoods for profit.
He does one of the things I love – questions the phrasing and framing itself, picking through the misapplied and misappropriated “food desert” as a useful fiction, before moving on to food hinterlands, mirages, swamps, and the notably ambiguous “food justice,” which brings together contradictory ideas about a more just food system.
Ultimately, his tongue-in-cheek takedown brings the reader from the original branding exercise through the academic and policymaker snowballing and back to a simple, delicious conclusion: people will go to great lengths to eat what they want, not what they are told to. American neighborhoods are, more often than not, just toddlers hoping no one notices the neglected broccoli pushed to the other side of their plate.
– Sam Jefferies