AVATAR: The Good, the Bad and the Gray by Adrienne Maree Brown
League Alum and current executive director of the Ruckus Society, Adrienne Maree Brown, wrote a really compelling review of Avatar over at her blog http://adriennemareebrown.net/. We thought we’d give you a taste of the awesomeness.
The Good:
The ecological analysis, that the world is a web of complete interconnectedness, of life…that life is precious, that a planet and everything on it is connected…this is very much what i believe. it is what i have spent the last several years trying to slow down enough to experience, to lean in close enough to smell and feel, to embody in my work. they made it phosphorescent, magical, lighter than life. but this planet can feel like that, too.
The Bad:
I hated that the strong female indigenous lead, who teaches the human avatar Jake Sully to speak, eat and live, has to step back and jump behind him (physically and hierachically) after they mate, when danger strikes. its not for long, and she comes back into her strength before the end, but that moment was too alpha for me.
The Gray:
Men, particularly white men, need to hear and see stories that help them (and anyone else engaged in violence and dominance behavior) recognize they have a part to play in a new way of living, and it requires a release of the whole dynamic of power over others.
But how does that message get delivered? Even if it’s in 3D, I don’t know how many millions will turn out to see an eco-justice anti-war tale about mother earth rising up against the military.
And since the story is so deeply a story about our relationship to this planet, our obliteration of our natural resources, our disrespect of indigenous cultures and forgetting our own indigenous stories, our displacement and destruction of the only place we have, the only water that we know exists and can sustain us…since it is SO close to home…can we perhaps as people with analysis, see it as a step in a process.
If you’d like more, you have to go to AMB’s blog here.
Yeah, white men are bad, the root cause of all suffering and injustice. WE GET IT!
Here’s a thought: Next time you, the USA, any South American or effete European nations need your asses bailed out of a jam, how ’bout leaving us over-testosteroned white devils (and our evil technologies) out of it. I’m sure some urban homies or Latin Kings will be happy to help. One way or another, I think you’ll soon learn what injustice and oppression REALLY mean.
Good luck and godspeed!