Shakespeare I have used innumerable times. The Odyssey, not so much. It could be different classes. And while the Odyssey is deeply influential on structure it’s not the only thing and often not the most direct influence.

To correct myself, I was meaning more than name dropping. If it’s just a sentence, “which is influenced by the Odyssey,” that’s dumb. You don’t need to read a book to do that. My threshold is something like thinking about my book, ok, I have living blood have a metaphysical effect on ghosts, that’s referential to book 10 of the Odyssey. But in book 10 there’s a whole issue of Odysseus having to keep the ghosts besides Tiresias back, so there should be some kind of addictive quality. And there’s a contractual aspect so how could giving blood be a contract?

It’s a discussion about the material. Not a passing reference. Passing references, I just don’t remember because why should I. Discussions, yeah I think there have been about three.

My point is that I am familiar with the topic. Excessively so. And it just hasn’t proven that important in general. Maybe it is my experience being off from the norm. That’s always possible. But I worked very hard on my degrees and books so, to be blunt, I would prefer you not to imply that I might be lying about my own experiences. If your experience differs, cool, talk about that. But don’t question mine.