I think Iguazu Falls is wayyy cooler looking than Angel Falls.
Avatar got you blue?
- Thread starter T'Baio
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This article brings up issues that are symptomatic of the unbelievable adolescence that we nurture in our culture - as well as the rampant depression that comes from living such adolescent lives.
I hope someone counseling the sad people in those internet threads told them that if the reality of our world gets them down they should take action at once. Join or start a group that works to 1) clean up the environment, 2) fight the military-industrial complex and/ or the horrible consumerism that junks up our planet with disposable products, 3) works to provide birth control and education around the world so we can control the population explosion, or any number of other things that might actually be useful in dealing with the problems our world faces.
I can understand a story bringing you face to face with unpleasant truths about the imperfection of our world and that resulting in sadness. I have no sympathy for people who would merely whine about it and not be motivated to action.
I hope someone counseling the sad people in those internet threads told them that if the reality of our world gets them down they should take action at once. Join or start a group that works to 1) clean up the environment, 2) fight the military-industrial complex and/ or the horrible consumerism that junks up our planet with disposable products, 3) works to provide birth control and education around the world so we can control the population explosion, or any number of other things that might actually be useful in dealing with the problems our world faces.
I can understand a story bringing you face to face with unpleasant truths about the imperfection of our world and that resulting in sadness. I have no sympathy for people who would merely whine about it and not be motivated to action.
I don't think it's simply that, though. It's the yearning for the impossible world of fiction, that never was and can never be. No amount of political activism is going to result in dragon-taming. The immersive fantasy aspect is very appealing, and I think the article touched on that well - it's not just that it's a natural world, it's a perfect natural world, lacking any of the ugliness and unplesantness of nature.
Honestly, I think it just boils down to many people feeling that there's no "adventure" left in the modern world.
You're very much correct, but most people are too unwilling to leave their comfort zone to find an adventure--that's no one's fault but their own. There's PLENTY of worthwhile adventure out there (even of the not putting your life in imminent danger type) once you're willing to leave the cushy suburbs or Disneyland.
^^ What everyone else said, especially JonathonWally... Though I'm pretty sure that sex with Neytiri could kill you .
Hmmmm, would definitely makes things much more interesting.
I'm pretty sure everyone's assuming they're also Na'vi somehow (though an Avatar is well outside of my price range).Though I'm pretty sure that sex with Neytiri could kill you .
You kidding? That's exactly the kind of response you'd want gamers to have to your product. Hill could be the next Paradox Entertainment or whatever other kind of games they make in Sweden.
These people need to see a movie to be down on the human species? Pff. Amateur misanthropists.
It's more than a sense of loss of adventure behind this malaise--as others have pointed out, there are minor exercises in such available, and most people don't even take advantage of that. It's the loss of hope. Throughout most of history, there was always some unknown patch of land, some mythical Isle of the Blest or Kingdom of Prester John in which people could invest their hopes of a better temporal reality; the idea that you could just pack up, leave and go beyond the horizon in search of a better place than this. Only the truly discontented ever actually did so, but the mere possibility was a psychologically powerful thing.
Now, of course, everything to be mapped has been mapped, anything obvious to be found has been found, and the only disciplines where discoveries are still taking place tend to be tremendously esoteric and hard to access for non-experts. Space travel is prohibitive; that's a bust. The discontented have nowhere to go, particularly since globalization and the standardization of all cultures: beneath superficial exoticism, it's the same shit everywhere you go. There are no possibilities, no hope. Our utopian impulse has met the limit of our ability to expand; it died, was buried, exhumed, pissed on, and the corpse beaten with shovels. So while these whiny little bitches are taking it to an excess, I can understand where the sentiment stems from; I'd be lying if I said I never felt the same impulse. There is nothing new in this world but what the imagination can provide, and that, to me, has always been one of the main appeals of genre fiction, literary or cinematic or whatever. Its ability to restore, however briefly, a sense of discovery and new-ness, of giving us back the horizon.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
It's more than a sense of loss of adventure behind this malaise--as others have pointed out, there are minor exercises in such available, and most people don't even take advantage of that. It's the loss of hope. Throughout most of history, there was always some unknown patch of land, some mythical Isle of the Blest or Kingdom of Prester John in which people could invest their hopes of a better temporal reality; the idea that you could just pack up, leave and go beyond the horizon in search of a better place than this. Only the truly discontented ever actually did so, but the mere possibility was a psychologically powerful thing.
Now, of course, everything to be mapped has been mapped, anything obvious to be found has been found, and the only disciplines where discoveries are still taking place tend to be tremendously esoteric and hard to access for non-experts. Space travel is prohibitive; that's a bust. The discontented have nowhere to go, particularly since globalization and the standardization of all cultures: beneath superficial exoticism, it's the same shit everywhere you go. There are no possibilities, no hope. Our utopian impulse has met the limit of our ability to expand; it died, was buried, exhumed, pissed on, and the corpse beaten with shovels. So while these whiny little bitches are taking it to an excess, I can understand where the sentiment stems from; I'd be lying if I said I never felt the same impulse. There is nothing new in this world but what the imagination can provide, and that, to me, has always been one of the main appeals of genre fiction, literary or cinematic or whatever. Its ability to restore, however briefly, a sense of discovery and new-ness, of giving us back the horizon.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Frankly, Pandora is pretty, and Neytiri is hot and all, but give me Eowyn and Middle Earth any day of the week.
Article is about people becoming depressed after seeing Avatar because...our world isn't as pretty as Pandora!
Pandora Dreams? I must admit that I occasionally feel a little...let down after one of those movies, but she's really a little horse-faced.
Yes! One of the three largest waterfalls on Earth. The other two are Niagara and Victoria Falls. I think it looks much better than any CGI waterfall in a movie.
Article is about people becoming depressed after seeing Avatar because...our world isn't as pretty as Pandora!
Pandora Dreams? I must admit that I occasionally feel a little...let down after one of those movies, but she's really a little horse-faced.
She kinda reminds of Kylie Minogue after getting run over by the ugly truck.
I've come across some pretty strange people (stranger than me anyway,) so I guess it takes all kinds. There are people on Live Journal using Photoshop to turn pictures of themselves into Na'vi.
The only thing "Avatar" made me want to do was write ten foot tall blue people smut.
Brit
The only thing "Avatar" made me want to do was write ten foot tall blue people smut.
Brit
While we don't have floating rocks (at least not without chemically induced visions) or glowing trees/insects we sure do have beautiful spots on earth.
To have some similar views go to equatorial regions/rainforests, my homeland of Bosnia has the famous Plitvice waterfalls which are just georgeous to look at and i've always been a fan of the scottish Highlands.
There's a ton of beautiful spaces on our home planet.. you just have to venture outside of the concrete molochs called cities and go where the human touch isn't so invasive (yet).
To have some similar views go to equatorial regions/rainforests, my homeland of Bosnia has the famous Plitvice waterfalls which are just georgeous to look at and i've always been a fan of the scottish Highlands.
There's a ton of beautiful spaces on our home planet.. you just have to venture outside of the concrete molochs called cities and go where the human touch isn't so invasive (yet).
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
I haven't seen the movie, and now am reluctant to, as it's apparently a plan by Cameron to mindfuck people.
I may be one of the few unaffected in a world of THE CRAZIES.
I may be one of the few unaffected in a world of THE CRAZIES.
No, just their wallets...
If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you obviously don't grasp the seriousness of the situation!
I guess it's in the human nature not to appreciate what you have and to wish for something different. There is a beautiful mountain 10 miles away from my city but I haven't been there in months.
And the desire to escape into a dragon-taming perfect world lacking all the complexities of real life is adolescent at best, spoiled brat whining at worst. And depression resulting from an inability to find real world satisfactions is fixed by only one thing - action. Action provides a sense of purpose and fulfillment - and makes you grow up. And action doesn't have to be political activism. It can be raising your kids and living in the moment to the fullest with them. It can be writing your own stories, or creating your own fabulous visuals of fantasy worlds. The point is - if you feel despondent because this world doesn't meet your idealistic longings, do something that does. Then you can enjoy fantasy to the hilt, but keep it in its proper perspective.
This fascination with "new worlds" as a major source of hope or inspiration in the world is a relatively recent concept and an almost exclusively Western one. It’s also one inextricably linked to imperialism. Appropriate, probably, that it is associated with Avatar then, because one of the big problems with the movie is the way it lets the audience yearn to experience a new pristine world full of pure-living natives while simultaneously beating the audience over the head with a “Bad Imperialists! Bad!” message. I have trouble with “Oh, there are no new worlds to conquer so pity me my loss of hope!” Because the West conquered all the frontiers, discovered everything "worth" discovering, and promptly shat upon it all - what a lovely dream and we should all mourn its passing.
(On the litany of things worth discovering - we haven't discovered a way to have a decent standard of living while actually preserving the biodiversity of our planet, or how to educate people well enough that they don't beat the hell out of their kids, or how to reign in human greed that runs so rampant we can barely run a business that treats their staff humanely - so I think we have a few more frontiers to "conquer".)
Look, I understand that we're all in a post-modern malaise that results from living under a dead paradigm that has been hideously transmogrified from new worlds to explore to new products to consume, but I really find this angst to be very teenagery. So we have no new paradigm at the moment - let's fucking well get busy figuring one out. Because sitting around in our funny glasses longing after simplistic fantasies thought up by someone else isn't doing us much good. Here's Avatar pushing the dream of a pristine, spiritual, natural world - while it's selling plastic action figure Happy Meal toys which will end up in a landfill for the next four hundred years. The paradox is almost cruel - all the more so to hear people so turned on by the fantasy while ignoring the reality that comes along with it. It's childish.
I love a good SF tale of exotic worlds, of challenging adventure, of the awe-inspiring unknown too – that’s some of my favorite stuff in the world. But I also find exotic worlds every day in the inner lives of the people around me, I find challenging adventure in the problems in our world that need solving, and I find the awe-inspiring unknown in art and spirituality. In the end, the real world beats fantasy any day of the week - because it's not safe, or simple, or perfect.
