Yeah, I know, Avatar Week on my blog was in early January, but I have more to say, so I hope you'll indulge me, imagining, if it helps, that we live on Venus, where a week is 819 days. With Avatar scheduled for theatrical re-release this August, the film remains near the surface of American cultural consciousness, due to resurface again, as soon as everyone has absorbed the new Twilight movie.

In my first post on Avatar, I argued that a great part of the movie's popularity stems from its cultural relevance, specifically to American cultural mythos. I'd like to expand on this and focus on two opposing forces that make this a highly unsettled text, able to engage and enrage viewers on all sides of the political spectrum. Those two opposing forces are an overt challenge to colonialism/imperialism and the going native trope.

Many viewers have made the leap between the Na'vi and Native Americans. It is always shifty ground to analyze a speculative text in terms of allegory; Tolkien, for example, famously decried any claims that Lord of the Rings contains direct allegory. (The Ring of Power does not equal the atom bomb, however many parallels it may share with that piece of war machinery.) Although I am sensitive to this issue, I too made the leap between Na'vi and a Hollywood representation of Native Americans, as I believe Cameron wanted his American viewers to do. 

My continuing objective is to develop edgy ideas that are timely, yet futuristic - created with compassion and a caring consciousness for the earth's fragile resources.

Did you know?

The number one most environmentally damaging effect is the automobile. The number two most environmentally damaging effect is industrial meat production...which pollutes our air, water and land while eating up valuable resources.

I'm like Pooh Bear. Writing ideas come and find me whether I'm ready or not so I end up backlogged with them.  Sometimes that is annoying. You can be churning along with a novel chapter and  P L I N G, a totally different story or idea pops into mind. It 's like a dog gnawing on a delicious bone when a tennis ball comes rolling along in front of you. What do you do: gnaw or drop the bone and chase the ball?

Tough choice, so you hold the bone in your teeth and frantically search for a piece of paper and a pencil to record where the ball goes. Sometimes though, the bone loses flavor.