Avaatar: Dream of the Goddess
Avataar is a slick, well made film but it is hardly original. Kevin Costner must have been yawning when he saw this movie with a ‘been there, done that!’ Dances with Wolves has the same theme: white man intrudes in on native civilization, discovers natives are actually cool and goes native himself. (Warning - plot points revealed so see the movie first before reading on!). The only difference is that in this latest installation the natives actually defeat the technologically advanced ruthlessly conquering civilization.
But still the movie has grossed a billion dollars and there must be some reason for its box office appeal. Its worth taking a look at its interpretation of symbols, why these speak to us and what that says about the times we live in.
The parallel between the story and the conquest of the American continent and destruction of the native populations by white settlers is there to see. But this is really a movie by western people about western people reflecting the state of western consciousness today, though of course in so much as this culture is exported around the world or adopted by people around the world they are affected to.
All the cliches from Hollywood film making are there: the white guy goes native and does native things better than the natives themselves. The pretty native girl falls for him abandoning all the men of her tribe. The native alpha male is killed off, after all the movie cannot have a native alpha man triumphing, well now that would not really work would it. The minority crew member is killed off after she has done her work of saving everyone.
Every age dreams of what it is not and what it does not have but wishes it did. So Avataar is a dreamscape of the missing parts of the modern psyche, those missing parts that leave such harsh, gaping, painful holes.
And what are the contents of this dream, what is missing? People living in the desert dream of waterfalls and gardens. People living in cold climates imagine heaven to be a tropical island while those living in the tropics insist God resides in an air-conditioned palace. And so people living in the technological-industrial wasteland imagine paradisiacal tropical forests like those inhabited by the Na’avi, the natives of the movie.
For it is unquestionably true that we are ruled by our technology. Who here reading this can go even a couple of days without accessing the web and not feel withdrawal symptoms? The same withdrawal symptoms that before only serious addicts would feel when denied their supply? Our electronic devices constantly demand our time and attention leaving little time to smell the roses and even when we do get to smell them we can hardly appreciate the experience because we are so distracted.
The portrayal of the invaders as profit hungry vultures who will do anything to squeeze a buck out of a stone doesn’t seem to be too off given the shenanigans we have witnessed in our glorious world of capitalism. For the millions thrown out of work in the last couple of years this image would certainly resonate. Profit is a wonderful thing and we all have to profit to survive: what goes in must be greater than what comes out else we will wither and die. But when everything is only for profit then the world seems extremely harsh.
To see the story as a purely nature v/s civilization lament as some have doesn’t seem quite right. Since man has been on this planet he has tried to shape his environment in some way or the other to meet his needs and make himself comfortable. He has to if he is to survive. Even the native people in the movie must shape their environment to be comfortable. In order to complete his initiation into the tribe the white hero must tame the dragon before he can bond with it. For nature is neutral and has both comforts and horrors galore.
But still the native people while seeking mastery over the environment hold it as sacred. If we hold something as sacred our relationship to it changes. It does not matter whether the sacredness is ‘true’ or not, just the fact that we hold the object as sacred changes our relationship to it. We treat and use it in a different way, we are generally more mindful and more respectful. In our modern life everything is disposable so we have no need to care. We can be careless and often are. And while being careless feels good in the short run, in the long run the absence of the sense of sacredness leaves us feeling drained and empty. So the sacredness resonates too.
To see the story as pagans v/s Christians does not quite seem right either. It is not even clear who are the Christians in the story. If anything the Na’avi seem more like Christians than the invaders. They have charity, brotherhood and everything else that the New testament talks about.
And they have love and this love as the tribe sees it seems so hmm what is that word traditional :). When the hero has completed his initiation he can stake a claim for a woman in the tribe. The Na’avi heroine wants to be claimed, she wants to be loved. Only then does sex happen and sex is still sacred. When the hero and heroine consummate their relationship it is joined together for all eternity, sanctioned before and by the divine principle.
The masculine principle is to do and the sword of discrimination cuts and cuts aiming higher and higher, constantly judging and choosing and gaining. Choice, choice choice! Control, control, control! Higher, faster, stronger! If it does not have a place to rest it will destroy itself in an orgy of choice and judgment. The feminine principle is to be and to love unconditionally, yielding fertility and preservation. On its own it will simply bring everything to a standstill. Both are necessary. It is in the feminine that the masculine finds its rest and then life is restored to some form of authenticity and spontaneity, to being more ‘natural’.
The modern world of the technologist invaders is completely masculine. The Goddess has been completely driven out. There seems to be little love in this world because everyone is in competition with everyone else men and women included, and everyone is carefully carving and protecting their image. Building homes and families is now passe so there are no shared spaces anymore, no places where people can rest. Everything is judged and the only thing that matters is performance. Few people can find this comfortable for very long.
Sex is now readily available and completely profane. Besides the blackberry will interrupt any sacred moments and it is far more important. And then there is yoga at 5, the personal growth workshop at six, wait got to update my twitter status, oh Jimbob just updated he saw something funny, whats the latest news, networking at eight, five new updates on the blackberry, so where were we?
And so the audience gazes onto the gentle shared spaces of the Na’avi with an unspoken sense of wistful longing.
The family however flawed, however problematic is the antecedent to all human growth and development. It is in theory to be a shared space, a place where partners complement each other not where they are in competition with each other.
Only with the building of the family can life be local as the Na’avi life is. For once the family is built all time, energy and care go towards the immediate environment in which the kids are to be raised. With locality comes the sense of belonging and community that the invaders don’t seem to have.
It is fitting that the natives win by calling in the awesome power of nature. The allegory is not hard to see for nature is indifferent to our grand ideas of who we are. Impermanence is our true reality, in this life we will all get old and die. Nature takes over as in the future belongs to those who are actually there to see it. Those cultures that still treat their shared spaces as sacred and where homes are still built are the most fecund. So their children will be around to see the future.
Avataar is a Sanskrit word meaning divine incarnation. In Hindu mythology Avataars descend onto the Earth in order to address some need of humanity. Judging by the popularity of the film the dreams of western consciousness at this time seem to be calling for an incarnation of Sophia, the dark Goddess, the earthly feminine principle. For you see this Goddess Sophia loves you unconditionally. In her presence you can simply be.
