Avatar, Orthodoxy, and the Sacrifice of Story
in which I discuss how critics' responses to "Avatar" exemplify one of the most toxic trends that is harming storytelling today
In the novel I’m currently reading called A Gentleman in Moscow, the protagonist is put on house arrest in a hotel. (He’s a member of the Russian aristocracy during the Bolshevik Revolution, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that he befriends an actress who has recently been cast out of Polite Society because her director has been accused of fraternizing with Wrongthink.)
In the story, this director—a Party darling—has had a long run of making films adored by public and Party alike, until, eventually, certain members of the Party begin to fret that he is harboring a bit too much nostalgia, and it might compromise his stories’ themes. So, of course, he’s cancelled. Straight to jail—right away!
Well, you can imagine my surprise (or lack thereof), when I open the Internet one day to see that this very story is unfolding as we speak. With the release of his newest film, Avatar: The Way of Water, director James Cameron is being accused of harboring non-woke sentiment. In article after article after article, frenzied “journalists” and “film critics,” no doubt typing so quickly their keyboards catch fire, are denouncing Cameron as “racist!” “a colonizer!” and so on—which strikes me as rather hilarious, considering that the Avatar films are nothing but thinly-veiled propaganda for climate change and other tenets of Wokeism—and that Cameron himself is a fervent woke moralist.
But that’s just it: there is a veil, and veils are dangerous things.
I recently wrote about the woke horror movie They/Them, and how astonished I was that it threw away the most compelling conclusion (which would have served up a perfectly woke Message!) in order to present a flimsy, shallow theme with zero nuance and no room for “misinterpretation”—although, I see now that I shouldn’t have been. This only makes sense, because it’s not art these people are tasked with producing.
“[But] art is the most unnatural minion of the state. Not only is it created by fanciful people who tire of repetition even more quickly than they tire of being told what to do, it is also vexingly ambiguous. Just when a carefully crafted bit of dialogue is about to deliver a crystal-clear message, a hint of sarcasm or the raising of an eyebrow can spoil the entire effect. In fact, it can give credence to a notion that it is the exact opposite of that which was intended. So, perhaps it is understandable that governing authorities are bound to reconsider their artistic preferences every now and then, if for no other reason than to keep themselves fit.” – A Gentleman in Moscow [on film]
So, back to Avatar. James Cameron made the mistake of attempting to produce a piece of art. Indeed, many have called the film beautiful, incredible, awe-inspiring, and the first movie broke box office records back in 2009 with its ground-breaking visual effects. But, as we’ve noted, artists are not in high demand these days.
And so, James Cameron’s veil of story—of art—is his downfall, because to veil the propaganda you produce is to veil your loyalty to the regime, and veiled loyalty can be questioned. This is not simply an inconvenience, but an existential threat, because it leaves a person vulnerable to denouncement. And in woke Hollywood, being denounced often spells the end of your career. (Straight to metaphorical jail—right away!) Your entire livelihood—and your reputation—is on the line.
Cameron, though, fossil that he is, comes from a time when veils were an acceptable fashion. Even as late as 2009, when Avatar released, the threshold to prove one’s loyalty was not yet what it is now, as no one had ever really challenged the orthodoxy and lived to tell about it.
In other words, Cameron is an artist first and a propagandist second. This is no good.
Predictably, the hungry little piranhas who call themselves “film critics,” are leaping at the chance to devour him, because, in the cult-like world of the woke, denouncing others is a fast-track to the top of the hierarchy. It’s a way to swear your fealty to the regime—and, by doing so, protect yourself, at least for the time being until iniquity is found in you.
Thus, the real artists—the honest storytellers who do what they do for the love of their craft—are being driven out, replaced by machinists whose job it is to keep the propaganda mill operating. You and I are not their audience. When they say “modern audiences,” they mean the upper Party echelons, from whom they’re desperately seeking a crumb of approval, a ribbon to pin to their suit while they climb the ladder to the top, one denouncement at a time. It’s a dog-eat-dog world in the machine.
But the good news is, you and I don’t have to operate in that world. I talked recently about how independence is the new status symbol—and this is great news for the future, not just of art, but of society as a whole. The machine is rusty, and its gears are starting to grind. Eventually, it will break, and we need real artists and storytellers ready to rise up and fill the void when it does.
CNN recently published a piece denouncing the film because of "white saviorism" and "denouncing colonialism via a white lens." To the CNN writer, the MC is problematic because he was a disabled white man prior to mind-melding into his "avatar" body. (I suppose we're blasting past the metaphor there, of the paralyzed white male finding renewed purpsoe and vigor in a non-human race-less life attuned to Mother Nature.) The article took an odd stance, claiming that while the films have SOME laudable themes, ultimately they are flawed because they are directed and told from the P.O.V. of a white male. It stopped short of suggesting the award-winning Cameron be ousted from his own block-buster franchise. I can understand if a critc would like there to be a POC-directed and POC-led fantasy film, but I don't see how attacking Cameron's unchangeable "white-ness" is a valid critic of the film on their part. It's not like Cameron can reverse his birth and choose a different skin color.