Cameron's Avatar no different than the rest...
NeutralAlso, if you've seen this movie and disagree with what's said in this journal, please do comment! I really wanted to go watch this movie, but after doing the research, I'm undecided about whether I feel like it deserves my support.
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I would say a few things about the whole movie in general first, but I think the following excerpts from the article you can find here [link] just about sums it up.
"This is a classic scenario you've seen in non-scifi epics from Dances With Wolves to The Last Samurai, where a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its most awesome member.
This is not a message anybody wants to hear, least of all the white people who are creating and consuming these fantasies. Afro-Canadian scifi writer Nalo Hopkinson recently told the Boston Globe:
"In the US, to talk about race is to be seen as racist. You become the problem because you bring up the problem. So you find people who are hesitant to talk about it."
Sure, Avatar goes a little bit beyond the basic colonizing story. We are told in no uncertain terms that it's wrong to colonize the lands of native people. Our hero chooses to join the Na'vi rather than abide the racist culture of his own people. But it is nevertheless a story that revisits the same old tropes of colonization. Whites still get to be leaders of the natives - just in a kinder, gentler way than they would have in an old Flash Gordon flick or in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels.
First, we'll need to stop thinking that white people are the most "relatable" characters in stories. As one blogger put it:
"By the end of the film you're left wondering why the film needed the Jake Sully character at all. The film could have done just as well by focusing on an actual Na'vi native who comes into contact with crazy humans who have no respect for the environment. I can just see the explanation: "Well, we need someone (an avatar) for the audience to connect with. A normal guy will work better than these tall blue people." However, this is the type of thinking that molds all leads as white male characters (blank slates for the audience to project themselves upon) unless your name is Will Smith."
But more than that, whites need to rethink their fantasies about race.
Whites need to stop remaking the white guilt story, which is a sneaky way of turning every story about people of color into a story about being white. Speaking as a white person, I don't need to hear more about my own racial experience. I'd like to watch some movies about people of color (ahem, aliens), from the perspective of that group, without injecting a random white (erm, human) character to explain everything to me. Science fiction is exciting because it promises to show the world and the universe from perspectives radically unlike what we've seen before. But until white people stop making movies like Avatar, I fear that I'm doomed to see the same old story again and again."
Once again, you can find the rest of the article here [link] , and while you're at it, you might also be interested to read the interview James Cameron had with Playboy.
Yep, with Playboy magazine. Warning to any young readers, some very mature, and altogether disturbing, truths are revealed about this infamous director... Just in case you were a bit iffy on whether Mr. Cameron was an asshole, he opened his mouth and removed all doubt: [link]
Yeah. I'm definitely NOT sure about watching that movie any time soon... sad, because despite the disturbing perspective from which this film was created, the animation looks drool-worthy gorgeous. Ah well... -
Still working on a couple of requests, including *IslandWriter's for catching my kiriban~ <3
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ANIME NORTH '09 PICS: [link]
Love
Sorry, that journal title = my unnecessary urge to emphasize how amazing it is that I'm returning. 
Lay it on me - Avatar fandom stuff, I haven't been in touch with anything other than Racebending in the past 3 MONTHS. 
I've missed this place sorely 
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Excited
