http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2pL11fqIj0&playnext_from=TL&videos=5neMgwyaDYE&feature=sub

But so far I haven’t finished the thoughts… I think I should see IMAX 3D and then rethink again. Glad to see the threads, it’s really funny.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sex-drugs-and-boredom/201001/why-do-we-long-fictional-worlds

I must say I was impressed by the effects, more than I expected to be. I saw it in IMAX 3-D and am curious as to how it would be in normal, flat screen but I”m not sure I want sit through it again.

As for the story I was anticipating that it would be simplistic and possibl offensive so I purposely tried to ignore it as much as possible in order to fully enjoy the visual experience. But I have started reflecting on it more now.

Though the story is anything but irrelevant, it’s amazing to me the range of ‘takes’ on it that I have heard from the ‘general public.’ Most people seem so captivated by the effects that they don’t even comment on the story, as if it were simply a vehicle for the visuals. One friend told me that as she was leaving the theater, she overheard a young woman on her cell phone telling someone how totally bored she was by it! Hard to imagine, but just goes to show.

In any case, what I wanted to add to this discussion is a reference to a book:
CAUGHT IN PLAY: HOW ENTERTAINMENT WORKS ON YOU by Peter G. Stromberg, who is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tulsa. His main point being that entertainment does very actively reinforce, and possibly shapes, society’s values and priorities, all the more powerfully since it is often dismissed as having such impact.

I’ll be looking for his take on Avatar… and I may need to go see it again, just so I can do so from my now more informed perspective! Thanks for this great blog and discussion, Julia

Musing on Avatar, I agree with the comments about thin plots, etc, but as a movie, I agree with Rex–having worked in a “first contact” and “resource” environment, I enjoyed the theme, even if thin and predictable. Indeed, for me the parallels go farther–having been an anthropologist on a “research” team supporting a bigger resource company and discovering the games played, the power structures, etc.

_________________________________________
As for the anti-applied comment above…

I AM an applied anthropologist. Like most American-trained anthropologists, I had some disdain for applied work that seemed to be part of the curriculum. HOWEVER, having fallen into applied work after extensive moral deliberation, and I stayed in applied work even though I knew of the toll it would take on the viability of my academic career. I continued to work with an indigenous population–for a mining company–because the indigenous community themselves WANTED ME TO. My pay was significantly less than the rank and file mining worker and not too far off par with academia (of course, living overseas for much of the year had positive tax implications). As REX and KERIM point out above, difficul moral deliberations are part of the real world!

Liz Losh at virtualpolitik.net has an “incisive critique”:http://virtualpolitik.blogspot.com/2009/12/avatarded.html of Avatar that gets at many of my concerns, not so much about this particular cinematic text, as the webs of significance, practice, and power in which it is suspended.

A prosperous new year to SM and all your readers.