Home » all category posts » Histories

Why An Archetypal Narrative Isn't Ipso Fact Political


Several friends who dogged on Avatar have seen it recently. And every one of them tells me, "go see it." Of course, every one of them says, "it is like an alien version of 'Dances With Wolves' and is all about white, post-colonial guilt and race."

Although I haven't seen the movie I have seen 'Dances With Wolves,' 'Dune,' and 'District 9.' There is a reason movies like Avatar use this narrative archetype. And it has nothing to do with race, or post-colonial guilt or being white. The archetype is a common foundational myth, pops up in many national literatures and historical writing for a reason. It's been used by the Turks, the Mongols, the Mayans and others. It's not about colonialism, it's about the fluidity of tribes, a much older human grouping and one that is much more primal.

Tribes have been, historically speaking, very open to newcomers, those not ethnically or racially or even linguistically pure, for lack of a better description. We call that great grouping of people who left North East Asia and spread out across the much of Central Asia, the Near East and Eastern Europe, Mongols, because Mongolian was the principle dialect of the headman of the tribe. But there were many more Turkish speakers in that great agglomeration of peoples than there were Mongols. Why do you think Turkish is the dominant language group between the Bosporus and the Tien Shan? There is even a tale in 12th century Turkish collection of poems called the Dede Korkut that is almost identical in plot to Avatar.

In the end it is a story about who we choose to be, or in modernist terms, human agency, and the fluidity of personal identity. That is why it is such a powerful and oft used narrative archetype. Post colonial racial guilt? Whatever. If there is any vague political intent innate in the archetype it is about freedom. Try reading a history book not written by some anti-Enlightenment right winger from time to time.


Sean Paul Kelley December 20, 2009 - 3:14pm
Sean Paul Kelley's diary | printer friendly version | digg
( categories: Histories | Ruminations )

On top of my list...

After the snow melts out there. :)

creativelcro December 20, 2009 - 6:00pm
login to post comments
saw it last night...

3D (not IMAX :-( )

I'll admit that, yeah, it does resemble 'Dances with Wolves' in general plot, but I went in with an open mind, and was not disappointed in Cameron's ability to tell a compelling story, in a way that wasn't stale, with effects that will leave your jaw in your lap.

Only spoiler I'll toss out there, (won't be much of one) is the photography of the world of Pandora completely floored me...even more than the interactions of the characters... Fauna similar to Earth, but different in many important respects, *VERY* impressively animated (and believe me, I've seen enough animation over the past 12 years to know), The tech was believable, although I would have liked to have had some explanation (maybe in a program, if not in the film) of what they were mining there, and what it's function was...

This was one of a very few films I'd be wiling to (and I will) spend $13.95 again to see in 3D...sooooo much to see.

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

justadood December 20, 2009 - 7:21pm
login to post comments
This movie had plenty to do with race, post-colonial guilt and

whiteness. It couldn't have been less subtle in parts. That doesn't invalidate what you're saying about the archetype, of course.

Despite some fairly atrocious writing I enjoyed it a lot and plan to watch it again in 3D.

kovacs December 21, 2009 - 12:04am
login to post comments
Seeing it Thursday

I am spending a couple of months in Australia and I have tickets to see Avatar in 3D at what is advertised as the biggest IMAX screen in the world at Darling Harbor in Sydney. Sounds like I won’t be disappointed.

Karl der Grosse December 21, 2009 - 9:36pm
login to post comments
Chinese see tourism value in Hallelujah Mountain

A mountain peak in China's Hunan province, which inspired Golden Globes Best Director winner James Cameron for his latest blockbuster, Avatar, was renamed today, xinhuanet.com reported.

The management committee of the Yuanjiajie part of Wulingyuan Scenic Area in Zhangjiajie changed the name of the "South Pillar of the Heaven" (also called the "Pillar between Heaven and Earth") to "Hallelujah Mountain", a namesake floating island in the movie that circulates in the magnetic currents of the make-believe planet of Pandora.

Related readings:
'Avatar' tops box office for sixth-straight week
"Avatar" replaces "Titanic" in record books
2D Avatar to be taken off screens

The "South Pillar of the Heaven", about 150 meters above the ground at the height of 1,074 meters above sea level, is a nationally renowned scenic attraction, among "three thousand mountain peaks" in the tourist city of Zhangjiajie in central China's Hunan province.
"We renamed the top not because we are blindly following foreign culture," said Song Zhiguang, director of the management committee of the Yuanjiajie scenic area. "We're only sending this message to the world: Zhangjiajie belongs to the world and is now known to global tourists."

According to the report, one of the "Hallelujah Mountains" in the movie is modeled after the South Pillar of the Heaven, on which a major cameraman for the movie spent four days shooting photos.

The movie's director said during a press conference last December that the "Hallelujah Mountains" were modeled after Huangshan Mountain in China's Anhui Province. He said he sent his crew to the site during preparations for the movie's alien planet scenes, but later that month a Chinese Internet user reported the original model for the mountain was not Huangshan but the South Pillar of the Heaven in Zhangjiajie. He made the determination by comparing photos of the South Pillar of the Heaven and the movie's "Hallelujah Mountain".


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-01/25/content_9374295.htm

graham January 25, 2010 - 10:21pm
login to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.