A BELATED RESPONSE TO AVATAR

Avatar is a visual wonder. But the script line is of fairytale simplicity; perhaps intentional to reach out to a wider demographic. The movie's theme is the White Man's invasion of indigenous populations for material gains. Where unthinking ecological destruction for capital gains is disguised as imparting education and civilization. In front of the ultra-advanced technology most people are helpless. Or are they? Not, if you are ready for a good fight with the help of champions from the other side.

Avatar could be a typical product of America discarding eight years of Republican war-mongering and welcoming a pro-peace/no-appetite-for-war Democratic party. Otherwise, nothing explains the super success and award-winning spree of this movie.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS...

"It is a strange fish that is aware of water."

- Proverb

A fish that is aware of water is a strange fish: because a fish can never know what it must feel like out of water. Culture, in sociological terms, is our water. But writer-types (from rarefied authors to minor ones) like to think of themselves as existing outside of society as neutral observers.

This is one such watery illusion.