Well, the blogosphere's reaction to Pat Robertson's statements about Haiti seems to be fairly unified: how dare he?! Among the more creative reactions are a letter to Robertson from "the Devil" and this segment from John Stewart's Daily Show:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Haiti Earthquake Reactions | ||||
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Just beautiful, really, Stewart's Bible-based rebuttal.
So consonant is the chorus of voices condemning Robertson (and Rush Limbaugh) that I feel safe in moving on to other things to discuss (though the Haitian crisis is ongoing--our prayers support ought not cease).
Anyone seen Avatar, James Cameron's latest mega-blockbuster? Silly question, really; it's been topping box office charts for the past month or so. I saw it with my father in 3-D. I found it entertaining enough at the time, but I wasn't blown away. Cameron dresses up a thin melodrama (aptly described as Pocahontas meets Ferngully) with $300 million (or is it $500 million?) in special effects animation. Half a billion dollars does buy some impressive images.
Wikipedia provides an adequate plot synopsis if you've missed it thus far. Basically: the capitalist military-industrial complex gets bested by we're-all-connected, back-to-nature primitivism. Jake, the disabled main character, finds new life by downloading his consciousness into an "avatar"--a genetically crafted hybrid of human and alien (i.e., the tall, blue natives of the planet being plundered by above-mentioned military-industrial complex).
Two reactions to this film have caught my interest. First, not surprisingly, some evangelicals take issue with the film's worldview. Alex McFarland, a Christian evangelist and president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, has raised concerns about the film's pantheistic worldview and anti-capitalist critique.
Second, more surprising to me, is that some people are really, really, really, really into this film. The same escapist, back-to-nature pantheism that McFarland cautions against proves to many fans so enticing, so much better than drear reality, that the Avatar movie website's forums have a number of threads dedicated to dealing with the disappointment that Pandora doesn't actually exist (see here, for example). The posts on there range from the light (e.g., "gee, I wish I could hang out on Pandora") to the sad (e.g., "my life is so boring here. I wish I lived there on that world.") to the worrisome, as in people becoming clinically depressed after watching the film. This CNN article on Avatar blues quotes one forum poster:
"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "Yeek.
What's odd is that I had nothing remotely like that reaction to the film. It was a movie with big, loud effects and big, loud dramaturgy (much like Cameron's Titanic, really). Something, however, clearly and strongly touched a great many people watching the film. I'm curious as to whether this something is similar to the elements that triggered McFarland's alarm bells...
I suspect that some of McFarland's unease has to do with Avatar's spirituality.
More tomorrow,
JF
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