brianct
01-25-2010, 01:24 PM
Its well known AVATAR addresses many current issues here on EARTH...ffrom ddestruction of the envioronment by predatory mining companies to the 'war on terror'(regd TM)
But i also came across this item in an insightful article:
'And while of course the name Pandora is not what its inhabitants call their world, it is interesting that the name the humans have given it is one which links it to another human version of the Fall, just as much as if they had called it Eden, as well they might. Pandora's curiosity unleashed evil into the world, but left humanity with hope. The Greek myth, like the Judaeo-Christian one, has a misogynist element; Jake's betrayal is his and his alone—and his desire to be reconciled with the two women he feels himself accountable to, Neytiri and Grace, is crucial to his choice to redeem himself, by helping the Na'vi save themselves. Moreover Jake betrays the Na'vi twice over, the first time deliberately by agreeing to spy on them and the scientists as a way of getting his legs repaired by the company, and later inadvertently. Video blog entries in which he expresses his growing conviction that the Na'vi will not relocate are appropriated by Quaritch as evidence of the need to move to military action. (It is worth pointing out that this sort of appropriation of video blogs by the military is a live subject of debate among actual current anthropologists involved in debates about Human Terrain projects.)'
Strange Horizons Reviews: Avatar, reviewed by Roz Kaveney (http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2010/01/avatar-comments.shtml)
that last bit is happening right now...
But i also came across this item in an insightful article:
'And while of course the name Pandora is not what its inhabitants call their world, it is interesting that the name the humans have given it is one which links it to another human version of the Fall, just as much as if they had called it Eden, as well they might. Pandora's curiosity unleashed evil into the world, but left humanity with hope. The Greek myth, like the Judaeo-Christian one, has a misogynist element; Jake's betrayal is his and his alone—and his desire to be reconciled with the two women he feels himself accountable to, Neytiri and Grace, is crucial to his choice to redeem himself, by helping the Na'vi save themselves. Moreover Jake betrays the Na'vi twice over, the first time deliberately by agreeing to spy on them and the scientists as a way of getting his legs repaired by the company, and later inadvertently. Video blog entries in which he expresses his growing conviction that the Na'vi will not relocate are appropriated by Quaritch as evidence of the need to move to military action. (It is worth pointing out that this sort of appropriation of video blogs by the military is a live subject of debate among actual current anthropologists involved in debates about Human Terrain projects.)'
Strange Horizons Reviews: Avatar, reviewed by Roz Kaveney (http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2010/01/avatar-comments.shtml)
that last bit is happening right now...