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Going Native in the Digital Realm: Avatar's Gnostic Fantasy

Avatar, especially in the 3D version and on a big screen, is indeed a significant innovation, and a herald of things to come. It offers a stunning visual and spatial experience that seamlessly synthesizes lens-based photography and computer-based image generation. The effect here is not merely convincingly "real," but challenging to the camera's traditional role as a stand-in for the human eye.

First, I'll offer some words for those of you who might be considering whether or not to participate in the gargantuan cultural event that is Avatar. Then, I'll offer some suggestions for discussion around the experience, for those who do see the film.

The filmmakers have put their technical innovations to use in creating breathtaking fantastical landscapes, plants and animals. After watching so many CGI-heavy films where the action takes precedent over the scenery, at last the computer-generated machines are background to the computer-generated biological life. Viewers are able to really take in the sights as a tourist of a fantasy world, rather than watching it race by in the backgrounds of fearsome creatures in hot pursuit.

As in the original Toy Story film, the creators of Avatar have appropriately matched medium to subject matter. Viewers are treated to an immersive, technologically-augmented sensory experience, in which we watch the main character undergo an immersive, technologically-augmented sensory experience. In some cases (as in Toy Story), such a successful marriage makes for good art. In the case of Avatar, the story is so unimaginative that we see merely adequate art. At least Avatar offers a welcome relief from the licensed characters and superhero franchises that typically roll out such technological advances.

The story, as many have pointed out, is an old one. As in Dances with Wolves, Avatar portrays an indigenous people through the eyes of an outsider with whom we're meant to identify. With the main character, we eventually learn of the oppressed plight of the native group, and sympathize with them against callous colonizers. It's a classic "going native" fantasy, in which an invader falls in love with the enemy and eventually changes sides.

For those new to such narratives - young teenagers perhaps? - the film's story might serve a worthy end. However, there are certainly better ways to reach this end, ways more generous and less general in the depiction of indigenous peoples. And in this case, the story devolves into some all-too-familiar narratives of violence and revenge.

The film's conflicts, though relatively bloodless in depiction, might still be too intense for some viewers. A few of the vicious alien animals are certainly the stuff of nightmares, and the themes of violence and traumatic loss certainly seem more adult to this viewer.

If you're still deciding whether to see this film, my bottom line recommendation is this: go only if you're keen to experience an early taste of the coming technological revolution in all things visual. As in most new products, this is the first version and there will be others, eventually some less polluted by militarism and simplistic approaches to race and communication. The story is no better and no worse than that of Dances with Wolves. But in the small genre of stories about male soldiers "going native," I'd sure recommend The Thin Red Line over Avatar. Malick's film is certainly more revelatory as a sensory experience, and more true to the complex effects of violence on all living beings.

I'll end with some suggested lines of discussion for those who do see the film. (You might want to stop reading here if you haven't seen Avatar, and plan to.)

• What do you think of how the Na'vi religion is represented? We learn through Sigourney Weaver's character that Na'vi religion consists of more than "mere faith," but exists as a neural network between all living creatures. What view of religious faith is implied here?
• How is the depicted struggle like or not like existing conflicts between indigenous peoples and colonizing forces? What pacifist responses exist to the threat of violent colonizers?
• Where conversations between people and animals in our world are two-way, the Na'vi undergo a sort of mind-meld with other creatures; they biologically merge through a biological tether in their tails. What understanding of animals emerges from this fantasy?
• Likewise, communication for the Na'vi is portrayed as ideally accomplished through mind-merging, skipping over spoken language to accomplish "pure" communication. What view of language's role in life emerges here, perhaps in contrast to the role of language in Tolkien?
• Do you remember if sound played as important a role in Avatar as did vision?
• What are the aesthetic origins of Pandora's flora, fauna and light? What do they remind you of, in other art or design? Why might they look the way they do?

Finally, for the more theologically inclined, I would urge some discussion of the gnosticism at the core of Avatar. Students of the Early Church will know that gnosticism's denigration of the material realm was one of the Church's first great internal challenges. In Avatar, gnostic approaches to divinity, history, sensation and life are in full force. A discussion of the film might be a good time to revisit how Paul and the early apostles looked to differentiate themselves from gnostic cults. There's a great deal at stake here, especially given the role of science and technology in current gnostic philosophy. I experienced Avatar as a forgettable visual pleasure, but one that has me thinking about how and when new technologies come ready-equipped with particular ideologies and accounts of human nature. 

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