‘The Odyssey’ and why we’re obsessive about journey disasters

Lost baggage? Tarmac delays? Rental-car blues? No whining about measly journey complications with the mom of all bad-trip sagas looming on the massive display.

“The Odyssey,” Christopher Nolan’s epic tackle the Trojan War’s fallout, debuts July 17. Spoiler alert, should you someway averted Homer in group school: Nobody, save biblical Job, has had extra distress hurled at them.

Outflanked by merciless and fickle gods at each flip, legendary Greek hero Odysseus outsmarted a one-eyed large, suffered by means of the bewitching Sirens’ tune and braved the Underworld’s lifeless denizens. He battled oversize cannibals, outmaneuvered a witch and misplaced scores of males at each flip. Then made it again to Ithaca after 10 years solely to search out his dwelling overrun by suitors wooing his spouse.

It’s a story full of unhealthy selections, failure, heartbreak and demise. Perfect story fodder, given how a lot we love bad-trip tales. We devour lists of the worst airports and marvel at accounts of illness-plagued cruises. We scroll by means of movies starring unruly passengers or mangled bags, and skim concerning the last resting place for lost luggage.

Hollywood has created an entire franchise round highway journeys gone flawed. Think of “The Hangover” or “Sideways” or “Little Miss Sunshine.” Screenwriter-director John Hughes perfected the big-screen comedic remedy of journey gone south with classics corresponding to “Home Alone,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”

Let’s not even discuss concerning the “three-hour tour” that left Gilligan and pals stranded on a abandoned island for 98 episodes, or how Jack Dawson’s voyage ended aboard 1997’s “Titanic.”

A major physique of proof even signifies that travel makes us sick. Trip-related issues are so widespread, in truth, that client advocate Christopher Elliott has stitched a complete profession out of resolving them — from timeshare scams to horrible airline customer support and past.

Still, we preserve shopping for tickets and packing our baggage to sail into the good unknown, throughout Homer’s wine-dark sea. Why? Elliott attributes it to what he phrases “traveler’s amnesia.”

“It amazes me that travelers are not up in arms about the way they get treated,” he mentioned. “They take a trip, have a terrible experience, and forget about everything that went wrong and only remember what went right.”

He means that avoiding a nasty journey begins with selecting corporations famous for sturdy customer support. He cited some name-brand examples: Marriott for hotels, Alaska Airlines, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He avoids cruises as a lot as doable.

Which is humorous, as a result of once I take into consideration cruising, I don’t revisit the depressing 36 hours that norovirus confined us in our cabin. I as an alternative recall coasting previous a flotilla of icebergs in Alaska’s Glacier Bay.

When I take into consideration Mexico, I don’t wallow in recollections involving Montezuma and his gastrointestinal revenge. But I do cherish ideas of snorkeling with playful sea lion pups.

And once I contemplate airports, I blot the reminiscence of the lady subsequent to me at Gate 66 who insists on blaring a video name at most quantity. Instead, wielding my noise-canceling earbuds, Odysseus-like, I plan to smother this screeching sound to protect my sanity. But earlier than I can insert them, a voice speaks to me.

To all of us, to be technically right, because it emanates from the audio system of Los Angeles International Airport’s Terminal 6.

“It’s time to play TSA’s favorite game!” says the voice, mimicking a game-show host’s hustle. “You lost it, we found it!”

The speaker defined that somebody had left a laptop computer laptop at a checkpoint. The two had been reunited moments later, which set my toes in movement, questioning whose voice it was. There on the checkpoint I met Carl Revis, a TSA supervisory officer with a penchant for comedy.

“You don’t have to be a jerk to get things done,” he informed me. “I think reaching people through comedy is a lot easier than screaming and yelling at them.”

Taken collectively, my journey recollections most likely qualify me as dwelling proof of Elliott’s traveler’s amnesia concept. The last prognosis ought to be clear quickly. I’m retiring from full-time work this 12 months, and folks inevitably ask what’s subsequent.

It’s not fully clear, I inform them. But I’ll undoubtedly have extra time to journey. Maybe sail throughout the Aegean … what may go flawed?