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]

My current working theory about the bizarre humanoid nature of the Navvi is that they're an interface species to enable the vegetable intelligence of the Deathworld to communicate with aliens (humans). Hence the, um, attractiveness.