I love big movie events and whenever Captain James T. Cameron releases a film you know it’s going to be BIG. So I want to talk about the world of Pandora.
My longtime readers know that the Unique Miranda Trilogy was influenced by Cameron’s Aliens film (blended together with elements from Shakespeare’s The Tempest). In fact, the universe in which it’s set, Nasostorto, is named after Cameron. “Cameron” means crooked nose, which is naso storto in Italian.
I don’t necessarily think J.C. is the best director (or even a very good one). He’s very much like George Lucas in that he’s a technophile mythmaker with a budget to match his grand vision, so whenever he puts out a new movie, I am there for it.
Here are the things most interesting to me about the Avatar movies:
Eywa
The first striking thing about Pandora is that the Na’vi are monotheistic. And even more striking, Eywa, the deity of the Na’vi, is in the process of revealing herself to her people. In the first film, Neytiri is befuddled by wood sprites protection of Jake Sully. She takes this as a sign from Eywa. After this revelation she introduces Jake into the people, training and educating him into their ways. After Jake prays to Ewya to fight against the sky-people, Neytiri tells him that Eywa only cares about the balance of life.*
To her surprise, Eywa intervenes. This means either that Eywa isn’t concerned with balance or at least not as the Na’vi thought. I find this refreshing from a lot of movies where the gods are fully known. Also, it’s exciting when the religion of a world is not dead and settled, but in the midst of an apocalypse.
*Balance can be taken in a couple of ways, but to steel-man it, I interpret balance to mean conscientious consumption. Clearly the Na’vi kill and consume, use plants and trees; and clearly they will fight off attacks and leave their carcasses (as Neytiri does when she protects Jake from the viperwolves) knowing they will be consumed by other predators and fertilize the ground. But the destruction of land and tree by the sky-people is imbalance, to say nothing of the killings of the tulkun.
This preserves Pandora from the morally reprehensible balance in the Star Wars universe where the Jedi seek to balance the Light Side of the Force with the Dark Side. With the Dark Side clearly representing evil, and the Light Side the good, Luke’s mission to bring balance to the force meant to increase the light, but not necessarily eradicate the dark.
In the sequel the sky-people call this balance the Immune Response, seeming to accept that Pandora is a hivemind/world entity. They're able to circumvent it with cloned Na'vi. Perhaps this means that they’ve fooled Eywa, but perhaps Eywa is pointing to the way forward. To live harmoniously, the sky-people must become one with the Na’vi.
In fact, since the Na'vi do not jive ecologically with the rest of the species on Pandora, in that they don’t have two forelimbs like most of the creatures, this signals a unique origin. Either the Na’vi aren’t native or they are a special creation of Eywa. The Na’vi are certainly the prime guardians of the All-Mother and have a special connection to her, perhaps we could call them in the image of Eywa.
Or perhaps they are genetically related to sky-people. Which would mean that Jake is the mediator/prophet through which sky-people are (re)joined to the Na'vi.
My favorite thing from the sequel is Kiri. I'm in on her as a messianic figure. Virgin birth, mysterious powers. Yes, something is happening. My hope is that Kiri is the incarnation of Eywa.
None of this should take away from the spectacle of it all. I love that Cameron will add forty minutes in the middle of his movie to explore the ocean and its inhabitants. This is one of the most delightful things about the Avatar franchise. Sure, it has its stupid splodie action pieces that feature ambiguously motivated characters making poor choices for the sake of Almighty Special Effects, but Cameron also cares about making you want to ride an alligator eel dragon. That’s pretty cool.
All that to say is that Avatar will continue to get my money. I can’t wait for the sequel and the sequel and the sequel.
Check out these beautiful editions of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children Trilogy. It’s a bit out of my price range, but if anyone wants to buy them for me, I will gratefully accept them and write reviews dedicated to you.
Did you know that the Unique Miranda Trilogy is in Kindle Unlimited? That means you can read it for free if you don’t want to buy the hardback. It’s ranked 3,854 in Colonization Science Fiction. #1 in that category is Ice Planet Barbarians: Science Fiction Romance, which —don’t get me wrong— looks absolutely accurately ranked.
Also remember my sci-fi collaboration with D. H. Lawrence: SOL. I waiting on pins and needles to hear what the DH Lawrence Society thinks about it.
As always, my book of microfiction, Oddly Concerning, is not only free, but remains my best reviewed book.
For my March newsletter, I want to give you my reflections on All the Marvels by Douglas Wolk. I’m an avid fan of DC Comics, but I was able to find a lot of interesting things from his landmark study. Check out his book and then come back next month to tell me what you thought.
Thanks for reading!