Avatar - Have We Forgotten How to Experience Myth?
by K. L. Van der Veer
Does Avatar Have a Racist Message? (msnbc associated press)
Dances With Discrimination (globalshift)
Audiences Experience Avatar Blues (cnn)
These are the titles of several articles that have commented on the film “Avatar.” Granted, a couple of them offer a few tentative hopes in closing, but the dominant themes, the ones readers are most likely to take away and that I hear repeated are:
I think these articles are dealing with surficial elements of the movie and neglecting its depths. Anyone with a cause to fight for will see battle wherever they look. People who think the world is a discriminatory, unfair place will find it to be so. Great stories speak to many people, and because they often involve courage overcoming fear, we can pick what we want from them… we can take hold of the courage or dwell in the fear.
The best stories aren’t new ideas. They are deeply held ideals or archetypes brought into a new light. Bards used to tell the same stories over and over with only slight variations because those stories spoke to people. Now, we do the same, but because of the different settings and a different cast of characters, we think we must be in for a different story. We’re looking for a surprise. Simple surprise can be done by anyone and is not the mark of anything of great significance. Greatness doesn’t have to be unfamiliar. It just has to speak to us, to move us. I believe that Avatar’s familiarity of story allows us to start from a zone of comfort and step deeper into the magic and find a new light.
To begin with, no “one” saves the Na’vi or Pandora. Pandora saves Pandora. That’s the whole point of the movie. The classic definition of Avatar is the manifestation of a deity. This movie uses that word in several ways. Jake takes on a new form in a Na’vi body. Pandora is the avatar of Eywa. As a result, every Na’vi is also an avatar of Eywa. Such a balanced culture cannot conceive of hurting itself in the way that humans do, so Jake’s main role is to show Eywa what humanity is capable of. Eywa then rises up in the form of all life on Pandora and defeats the humans. Without the goddess moving, without everything acting from one source, the Na’vi and Jake would all have died.
Avatar is not a movie about any of the physical aspects that we can get hung up on. It’s about getting through all of that to our source. What we are struggling with in the plot of the movie is what we are struggling with on the surface of our existence. Avatar offers us a glimpse into what we can be when we stop poking at the surface, reach beyond our concept of reality, and open ourselves to the depth of creative force that is within us and uniting us. When that happens, we will not, as one of the people quoted in the associated press article suggested, “start thinking about race in a new way.” Race will not be part of our evaluation process at all. Race will mean all of us, all of humanity. We will not help people come to terms with disabilities. We will understand that each and every condition is unique, and we will no longer hold up a “normal” against which we compare people when assessing ability or a perceived lack thereof. The concept of “disabled” will be gone. We will not seek to escape our reality but be inspired to transform it.
We are all avatars, and if we give up our notions of the story that we make out of our lives, we will be able to create a world as magical as James Cameron’s.
Does Avatar Have a Racist Message? (msnbc associated press)
Dances With Discrimination (globalshift)
Audiences Experience Avatar Blues (cnn)
These are the titles of several articles that have commented on the film “Avatar.” Granted, a couple of them offer a few tentative hopes in closing, but the dominant themes, the ones readers are most likely to take away and that I hear repeated are:
• Avatar is simply a rehashing of “Dances with Wolves,” “Pocahontas,” and “The Last Samurai” mixed with various native and pagan cultural elements
• The Na’vi represent “people of color” and the white man comes to them, is enlightened by them, and then saves them
• The film places undue emphasis on the idea that being disabled is negative and fails to bring Jake to terms with his disability
• Sexism is present in the warrior “choosing his woman” as a final step in his path
• People are so enthralled with the magical world of Pandora that they are having trouble facing reality and seeking escapes and contemplating suicide
I think these articles are dealing with surficial elements of the movie and neglecting its depths. Anyone with a cause to fight for will see battle wherever they look. People who think the world is a discriminatory, unfair place will find it to be so. Great stories speak to many people, and because they often involve courage overcoming fear, we can pick what we want from them… we can take hold of the courage or dwell in the fear.
The best stories aren’t new ideas. They are deeply held ideals or archetypes brought into a new light. Bards used to tell the same stories over and over with only slight variations because those stories spoke to people. Now, we do the same, but because of the different settings and a different cast of characters, we think we must be in for a different story. We’re looking for a surprise. Simple surprise can be done by anyone and is not the mark of anything of great significance. Greatness doesn’t have to be unfamiliar. It just has to speak to us, to move us. I believe that Avatar’s familiarity of story allows us to start from a zone of comfort and step deeper into the magic and find a new light.
To begin with, no “one” saves the Na’vi or Pandora. Pandora saves Pandora. That’s the whole point of the movie. The classic definition of Avatar is the manifestation of a deity. This movie uses that word in several ways. Jake takes on a new form in a Na’vi body. Pandora is the avatar of Eywa. As a result, every Na’vi is also an avatar of Eywa. Such a balanced culture cannot conceive of hurting itself in the way that humans do, so Jake’s main role is to show Eywa what humanity is capable of. Eywa then rises up in the form of all life on Pandora and defeats the humans. Without the goddess moving, without everything acting from one source, the Na’vi and Jake would all have died.
Avatar is not a movie about any of the physical aspects that we can get hung up on. It’s about getting through all of that to our source. What we are struggling with in the plot of the movie is what we are struggling with on the surface of our existence. Avatar offers us a glimpse into what we can be when we stop poking at the surface, reach beyond our concept of reality, and open ourselves to the depth of creative force that is within us and uniting us. When that happens, we will not, as one of the people quoted in the associated press article suggested, “start thinking about race in a new way.” Race will not be part of our evaluation process at all. Race will mean all of us, all of humanity. We will not help people come to terms with disabilities. We will understand that each and every condition is unique, and we will no longer hold up a “normal” against which we compare people when assessing ability or a perceived lack thereof. The concept of “disabled” will be gone. We will not seek to escape our reality but be inspired to transform it.
We are all avatars, and if we give up our notions of the story that we make out of our lives, we will be able to create a world as magical as James Cameron’s.
posted by K. L. Van der Veer | 9:15 PM
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