Christopher Nolan's Odyssey cast Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, and the internet exploded over "historical accuracy." Nobody said a word when Diane Kruger played the same role in 2004. Sue and Ksenija dig into the double standard, and into what cultural appropriation actually means, using the Nyong'o/Kruger casting controversy and Montenegro's own non-racial experience of cultural erasure to ask what's really being protected when people invoke the term. Is this about race, about power and ownership, or is "appropriation" just doing too much work as a single word for very different problems? Also discussed: the Snow White backlash, Hamilton's colorblind casting, and why our idea of "universal beauty" so often defaults to whiteness.

📚 Books Mentioned
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• The Color of Everything by Cory Richards
• D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

💌 Our Substack & Show Notes:
https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/

📚 Read Ksenija’s Novels:
https://transatlanticbookmarks.substack.com/p/publications

📚 Ksenija on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6449766.Ksenija_Popovi_

🎙️ ABOUT TRANSATLANTIC BOOKMARKS

Hosted by European novelist Ksenija Popović and American engineer Sue Graham Johnston, Transatlantic Bookmarks is a weekly literary podcast that uses books as the starting point for conversations about culture, history, psychology, morality, politics, and the questions hiding between the lines.

New episodes every Saturday.

👉🏻 CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro

00:34 Casting Controversy: Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy

07:28 The casting of Nolan's Odyssey

17:40 The Inaccuracy of Beauty Standards

26:11 Reimagining Historical Figures: Hamilton

30:56 The Snow White Controversy

33:49 Inclusivity in Beauty Standards

40:38 Cultural Appropriation: Definitions and Perspectives

55:23 Book Recommendations and Personal Growth