Loss of common sense - racist subtext in Avatar

[skeeve]

Boy, do I love nutz of all persuasions - they are such a constant source or entertainment. Only recently there was this hysterical thread about GW conspiracy to subvert hearts and minds of our beloved children and now...

this

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/w...-a-stylish-film-marred-by-its-racist-subtext/

It is about time we start to look for a racist subtext in The red riding hood.

 

[Sukigod]

I love all the subtext people are finding when the real reason for pretty much everything they find is a choice made due to technical limitations.

In this particular article, the some of the racial aspects they point out (skin color and braided hair) are to get around the Uncanny Valley aspect, and braids are easier to render realistically than open, wavey hair.

Sheez people. Not everyone is trying to hide extreme dispositions, one way or another, in everything they do.

 

[Lirkas]

The article is made by someone totally stupid.

If he'd just put his article into the real world, he would say "if the USA invades the indigens in the Amazonia Forest, then the indigens have the means and intelligence to beat back the USA."

My my.. Really ?
This guy just reminds me of biased italian journalists.
However, I'm not sure he writes such idiocy on purpose, or because he is REALLY stupid.

Not to speak about the fact that in Avatar (which I didn't see yet), the movie does speak about two different races. With then, different potential, right ?
If it does, then there is no racism at all ... since we're really speaking about different races.
Why not say to your neighbour he's a racist because he doesn't consider the mouse in his garden as en equal, then ?

 

[cassar]

apparently alice in wonderland is all about drugs...bongs bad trips mushrooms hallucinations substances that make you tall(uppers) substances that make you small(downers) .etc sub text is all around you just have to look for it whoooooo.

 

[alextheartist]

More to the point:

 

[Tercha]

Te same thing happened with "Enemy Mine"

 

[evil tendencies]

Arguments of imperialism, implications of Freudian subtext in certain actions...yep, a very academic piece by all standards that I see in my profession. This is what universities are passing off as higher education these days, and, because they live in a hall of mirrors, these people don't understand how crazy they sound to anyone without their level of "education."

This is the kind of bizarre, disconnected and overly-considered stupid that only modern higher learning can produce.

 

[Dedwrekka]

Here's a question I've always wondered. Why is it that anything but a shade of pale that comes from Europe is called "Ethnic" and all ethnicities of the "White people" are ignored without it being racist?

How is it that you can claim to see racism in a movie, where it is clearly species-ism, and also claim to not be racist by seeing racism everywhere? If you're seeing racism everywhere stop (hammertime ) and look at why you're viewing every incident that involves white person led regime fighting other nationalities as racism?

Why isn't Die Hard seen as just as "racist" for it's portrayal of Germans in that case?

 

[DannyBoy2k]

stop (hammertime )

Now, now...no racism here. It's really:

Don't dis the Germans!

Why isn't Die Hard seen as just as "racist" for it's portrayal of Germans in that case?

And, to quote Die Hard 3....'You're racist...you don't like be because I'm white'. Actually thought-worthy. Of course, I think he's right in the 'I don't like you because you're going to get me killed!' answer but there it is...

 

[A Luna]

Ohwell... If they have nothing better to spend their time on.
The way that guy sees it is just like those ink spatter pictures psychologists and therapeuts showed in earlier years, whatever you answered you saw on the picture would make them throw a conclusion about your behaviour to you.
And that therapy was bullcrap. everyone saw different things in those pictures because the imagination of those people made them see it... just like this guy has when he saw Avatar.

I still don't want to see the movie though.

 

[skeeve]

.yep, a very academic piece by all standards that I see in my profession. This is what universities are passing off as higher education these days,

Hardly, I am not sure which universities and what higher education. Probably religious universities. Those I am familiar with tend to promote evidence based logical reasoning.
Granted, on a humanities side of things people often confuse "evidence" and "interpretation of evidence" and sometimes claim that facts as such do not exist at all but this is more common in humanities, not higher education in general. Interestingly that this approach isn't modern and has roots deeply in medieval religious education, in particularly the way scholastics used to deconstruct and analyze texts.
Notice, btw how you transpose a single fact to the whole concept of higher education... Last time I checked I didn't notice any "implications of Freudian subtext" in, say, advanced differential equations or "arguments of imperialism" in Elementary theory of computation but I digress...

 

[Dedwrekka]

Hardly, I am not sure which universities and what higher education. Probably religious universities. Those I am familiar with tend to promote evidence based logical reasoning.
Granted, on a humanities side of things people often confuse "evidence" and "interpretation of evidence" and sometimes claim that facts as such do not exist at all but this is more common in humanities, not higher education in general. Interestingly that this approach isn't modern and has roots deeply in medieval religious education, in particularly the way scholastics used to deconstruct and analyze texts.
Notice, btw how you transpose a single fact to the whole concept of higher education... Last time I checked I didn't notice any "implications of Freudian subtext" in, say, advanced differential equations or "arguments of imperialism" in Elementary theory of computation but I digress...

I think you're taking his context and spreading it thinly to make an arguement. It's clear from the context of the comment that he was commenting on the academic and higher education literary fields, not all fields in general. Writing and journalism classes tend to focus less on facts, more on making a schedule of presumptive conclusions that lead to a "startling revelation". They took Edward R. Murrow and Woodward and Bernstein and twisted the concepts to try and produce more scandal than news.

 

[mickc22]

Te same thing happened with "Enemy Mine"

I loved Enemy Mine

"Daa-witch oogly head"

 

[Sand Rat]

Haven't seen it. Don't want to see it. But from the trailers I have seen, it doesn't look racist - more noble savage beats ignorant technological man.

Very old literary concept.

 

[No Such Agency]

Ohwell... If they have nothing better to spend their time on.
The way that guy sees it is just like those ink spatter pictures psychologists and therapeuts showed in earlier years, whatever you answered you saw on the picture would make them throw a conclusion about your behaviour to you.

Oh I don't think that's without merit. Just look it up on Wikipedia, the Rorschach test is apparently quite a standardized though not ubiquitously used, tool of psychiatric analysis. What you see in any situation or image DOES say something about you, of course accurately figuring out what it says may be nearly impossible for another person

 

[Dedwrekka]

Oh I don't think that's without merit. Just look it up on Wikipedia, the Rorschach test is apparently quite a standardized though not ubiquitously used, tool of psychiatric analysis. What you see in any situation or image DOES say something about you, of course accurately figuring out what it says may be nearly impossible for another person

For Psychiatric use it's relatively useless. Sure, it's useful for telling about someone if they're telling the truth, however it's useless for actually telling if that revelation has anything to do with the current situation or is involved in a disorder. You could find a dozen people who would tell you the most bizarre things that they see, but for it to mean a disorder, it has to prevent them from functioning in society. The Rorschach test leads to more questions than answers, and those questions could lead to misdiagnosis based on an irrelevant skew on how the person perceives the world.

 

[skeeve]

I think you're taking his context and spreading it thinly to make an arguement. It's clear from the context of the comment that he was commenting on the academic and higher education literary fields,

Please, show me any such qualifications in the text of the comment. I see none. What I said is based on actual textual information rather then on "a schedule of presumptive conclusions" .

Anyway, startling revelations have little to do with journalism classes and much more with what sells. "Startling revelations" sell well or in modern time improve hit count therefore they tend to proliferate. This particular piece made me wonder though how often people tend to "find" things

And here we go. the subject is "Racism and....."

1)Lord of the rings
http://fantasy-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/racism_and_the_lord_of_the_rings

2)Star wars
http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/deconstructing_star_wars

3)Pokemons !!!!
http://dogasu.bulbagarden.net/bashing/racist_jynx_01.html

4)Sponge bob.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080819171645AA1wxb4

Now, after the last one I am sure I can find racism, sexism or any other favorite "ism" in any given text or movie... it is just a matter of careful "analysis":beerwave:

 

[Dragonsreach]

WOW
I was going to say that the writer has waaaaaaaay to much time on his hands, but here we go some of US (the community) are taking this waaaay to seriously.
Let's be honest, the writer is just putting something on paper to show
1: He's got an opinion
2: He's actually earning his money for a change.

 

[Dedwrekka]

Rabble rabble rabble rabble rabble!

Must find something to argue about!

 

[evil tendencies]

Please, show me any such qualifications in the text of the comment. I see none.

Nope, dedwrekka is right. I was referring to the part of academia that this piece would be located in - my part, in fact, which happens to be literary analysis. I thought it was obvious that, when commenting on a piece of writing, I was referring to an education, and attitude, in the humanities, and not trends in the disciplines of science or math.

You may be right about religious institutions, but my opinions are based on my observations at the secular, government-funded universities I attended or worked at. While I do know some religious institutions teach ideology over fact, secular institutions are not immune to this practice by any degree.

DR, I think you are exactly right, and that is why stuff like this upsets me so much. Not only is it presumptuous and arrogant for a writer to announce the presence of his own baggage, and his own conclusions, in a place that was intended to contain neither, but this is so often done for the pettiest of reasons. I could accept having a genuine disagreement, but cutting down someone else's work just to justify one's own continued presence (in the absence of any useful contribution) is sick.