by umbrarchist » Tue 16 Feb 2010, 14:08:47
It is curious that so much of Avatar is the same, if not derived from, a 1957 novel by Poul Anderson.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ameron may have borrowed some of the key aspects of his tale from author Poul Anderson.
Reader Goldfarb pointed us to Call Me Joe, a novella written in 1957 by Golden Age science fiction writer Poul Anderson. Many fans of Anderson suspect that the story was an important influence on Avatar, and some are calling for Anderson to be credited on the film. And it's easy to see why.
http://io9.com/5390226/did-james-camero ... ns-novellaIn 1957 we didn't have the Keeling Curve. Nobody was talking about Peak Oil. But the French had gotten their asses kicked at Dien Bien Phu but Amiercans had not yet gone into Nam to have helicopters over a jungle like in Avatar. The US is responsible for the deaths of 3,000,000 Vietnamese so American economist can ignore the depreciation of crappy automobiles purchased by consumers. Whoever heard of Net Domestic Product?
Some people say that Avatar portrays technology as EVIL but it really just shows that technology gives people POWER. The people then have to choose what to do with the technology and EVIL is one of the options.
So Avatar can be seen as an allegory of the last 500 years of Western, or possibly Roman, history. The word Czar comes from Caesar just like Kaiser so the Russians are really Westerners regardless of what the even more Westerners say.
But
REAL science fiction form the 50s and 60s was only read by a small minority of people. This watered down sci-fi that has become popular in movies and on television since Star Wars doesn't usually contain deep messages and the audience isn't trying to read any.
Get the book
Killer Thing by Kate Wilhelm.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/kat ... -thing.htmOr try some Project Gutenberg.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25567/25 ... 5567-h.htmThe Economic Wargame is a continuation of the Military Wargame by other means.
http://www.toxicdrums.com/economic-warg ... imgar.html