Avatar: not alone in sf in terms of its issues

[major_clanger]

There's been a lot of discussion of what many see as a problematic aspect of Avatar, but I've seen surprisingly little comment about how it follows another well-known SF film and indeed book in this particular respect.

A common complaint about Avatar is that Sully follows the Hollywood path of 'Well-meaning white man who becomes a better native than the natives'. Now in most respects I would say that Sully's progress to becoming a member of the Na'vi backs away from this: he is shown as rather slow and clumsy in most respects, even though he has what is presumably the best Na'vi body human science could clone and his own training and experience as a marine. The only thing he's particularly good at is flying.

(As an aside I think Cameron missed an opportunity to both explain this and give an interesting alternative take on Sully's character and background. Why not make Sully a marine pilot like Chacón, and explain his paraplegia as the result of a flying accident? Perhaps, even, a stupid stunt like the one that cost Douglas Bader his legs, rather than a combat injury? That would have justified his skill at flying, as well as giving extra poignancy to Sully's abilities as a Na'vi avatar. Not only would he have been able to walk as an avatar, he would be able to fly again. I've known aircrew who have been medically grounded, and it can be psychologically devastating. The reason so many pilots like this poem so much is that it so perfectly captures what it is like to fly; having that taken away is a profound loss to some.)

The real problem is with Sully mastering the Last Shadow and becoming the Toruk Rider, a feat that we are explicitly told places him amongst the greatest Na'vi ever. It's visually and dramatically impressive, but it does make it hard to defend Avatar from this charge.

But there's a classic work of SF, memorably filmed, that also follows the plot arc of:

- White man comes to planet
- Is nearly killed by the culturally-distinct local population
- But is accepted by them and assimilates their culture
- Takes a local wife
- Completes a dangerous rite of passage involving a feared local creature
- Is accepted as leader by local population through his mastery of such feats
- Leads attack on interlopers of his culture, and defeats them.

Yes, it's Dune.

Indeed, in Dune it's even more explicit. The Fremen are Arabs (they even speak Arabic) with a rigourous, almost Spartan culture. Paul Atreides is shown as at once understanding this culture, defeats other Fremen, gains Chani as a partner, and rides the Sandworms. Yes, he is the Kwisatz Haderach, but doesn't this in effect magnify his status as Special Interloper even more?

I raise this point because Dune never seems to have aroused the level of disquiet that Avatar has. This may of course be because it was written some 45 years ago, and attitudes have changed, but I do wonder if the forthcoming (but apparently delayed again) new film version will see similar criticism.

Comments

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

... and perhaps, even more bluntly, it's Tarzan, it's Lawrence of Arabia, it's a very common trope indeed in heroic fantasy of anay sort. There's even a reality TV show based on the premise -- Tribe? I see the ads, anyway.

I'm more interested in the reason why people seem to have their critical faculties so much more explicitly engaged while watching Avatar than during a regular action romp. Is it because they're already firing overtime trying to make the uncanny valley puppet people real?

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I was surprised that Cameron did not show more of the psychological effect on Sully of having legs again via the avatar.

As for your Dune comparison, here's another one for you: Pocahontas. A rewritten script plus two trailers: one the Pocahontas trailer voiceover with Avatar visuals and the other the reverse.

BTW, my Avatar review in case you're interested.

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

he is shown as rather slow and clumsy in most respects

But this is in a body he's only just acquired, without undergoing any of the normal training, in comparison to Na'vi who are in the bodies they were born in and following presumably many years of education/practice. And he isn't just good at flying; he's effortlessly good at it. As soon as he's mastered his mount, he seems to be as accomplished as Neytiri, who has again presumably had years of practice.

It is a very common trope; that's why it's recognisable. Oddly enough we were discussing it in relation to Dune yesterday evening, and we agreed that yes, it applies there too. I think it is simply that we are now mroe aware of these things.

I do think though that one shouldn't dismiss either Dune or Avater solely on the basis that they're racist. If we applied that to all literature, we'd have very little left.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I don't have that problem with Dune because a) to my mind the Atreides society is almost as alien and barbarian to me as the Fremen, he's not One Of Us and b) I do think that the fact that he's the Messiah makes a huge difference. The worst case subtext is "He's better because he's white!" - that any fine upstanding white man would naturally rise to a position of leadership in a primitive native society. Paul is clearly unique and supernatural, so that worst case analysis is ruled out.

[miramon.livejournal.com]

But in Dune, not only hss Paul been genetically engineered to be superior, but the Fremen society has been culturally engineered by the Bene Gesserit to accept him as their leader/messiah.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

An additional similarity between the two stories is that there is an element on the planet that off-planet powers want to exploit. But in Dune's case the reason for the interest in spice is explained and does add complexity to the conflict. (And also ties into the ecology of the planet in an interesting way, which is more than can be said about unobtainium at least so far. Guess we'll have two more movies for further explanation.)