At the center of the "story" Avatar is an "inter-species" romance between the humanoid Na'vi and a Human. Our protagonist falls in love with an "alien" woman and an "alien" culture, abandons all to quite literally "go native." In my opinion the whole exercise is at best sloppy sci-fi; the Na'vi could easily be swapped with any idealized aboriginal tribe on earth (if their mysticism was real), the setting could be any tropical forest (with phosphorescence), and the Marines could be employees any colonial company of the 17th-19th century without any major change to the story. This is sci-fi that I hate as the technology and setting aren't used to explore any interesting aspects of humanity and the robots and aliens are just there to provide a CGI spectacular.
Imagine if instead our protagonist had to deal with an environment and alien species that was genuinely alien. Instead of dealing with a furry's wet dream of anthropomorphic cats, what if they where sentient blobfish? Instantly the love story is made more difficult by the fact that there is no innate sex appeal. Now the story has to deal with the issue of what love is should the blobfish even be capable of love. Suddenly we have to dissect what love is and weigh intellectual attraction v. sex appeal, human hormones in conflict with blobfish ones. And we'd also have the question of what is it like to be put into a truly alien form that lives in a truly 3D environment and swims as primary locomotion. Our characters would have to deal with how grounding is a human body; how does form effect our interactions, our self-concept, and our view of our environment?
Dealing with complex questions about humanity is what makes science fiction a great medium. Avatar is lazy. (44,872)
So this is what it's come to. We've spent all and now are compelled to face the true reality of the situation we've chiseled out for ourselves. All these years trying to get more, get more, and get more independent have really all been spent mortaring ourselves tightly inside the chamber of the Hate Goat.
The Hate Goat sows confusion and harvests the gutted husks of dreams from within the foul Abbatoir of Hope. He rejoices that we've invested so much of our blood and effort, only to finally join him in his vile abode.
YOU LIED TO ME YOU SAID YOU'D NEVER TURN FROM ME YOU LIED TO ME YOU LIED TO ME (8,205)
There's a thundering hailstorm in Phoenix today, sending drops of frozen hate clattering across the skylight and beating the life out of weak trees. On the outskirts of my peripheral vision, I caught a glimpse of something white and jagged -- the future.
Life as a human right now is akin to having woken up inside the chute of a woodchipper. We may not even recall how we got inside the woodchipper in the first place. The one thing that is clear : the inevitability of the blades.
A feeling like saws chewing into my neck. The sounds of weeping just outside my door. And a cold light knife into my pupil reminds me : This is a world divorced from hope.
When facing a suffocated reality of nonexistent future, what do you do? Here are some options :
1) Lie down and wait quietly for the ice weasels to come. 2) Cry until you're too tired to cry any longer, then die. 3) Fight until death. 4) Put on heavy metal records and rock out for as long as possible.
Now, I don't know which of these sounds most attractive, or which you, the reader, may already be doing. I choose option #4. Here's why :
* Metal music is brain floss. * Metal music improves blood flow to the face. * Metal music is not a norm. * Metal music has no sympathy for your suffering. * Metal music remembers when you were only an animal. * Metal music hasn't heard about your regrets, but it can drench them in molten @#$%^& * Metal music will survive long after the Universe is toast. * Metal music recognizes your true form and can restore it if lost. * Metal music connects you with that aspect of youself that you forgot about. * Metal music is truth erupting from a sea of lies.
There's no future. But with metal music, the present can be made to rock. In these bleak and doomed days, everybody looks for help. Some go to shrinks, some watch TV, and some try in futility to numb the pain with drugs. Well, you all are welcome to your 'cheese' heroin, 'lean,' and amphetamines. I'm an Earache man myself. (17,442)
That "share" link at the bottom of these posts is "courtesy" addthis.com. They lend their code out to sites like ours, and in exchange, they rig it so it can only be run if the javascript is hosted on their site. I know, I could just modify it, but I really, REALLY don't have time.
Supposedly, since it's 'touching' their server each time a unique user loads the script, they compile some analytics that they share with you. This was not why I chose to use their code, I just found it on some blog and thought it was a fast and easy way to add a multi-site "share" link with as little headache as possible.
So I just checked the analytics on the site (even though we have AWstats on the server and have no need for it). Keep in mind that our real stats are in the thousands. Guess what? According to Addthis, we got 8 hits this month. I had no clue! (21,878)
At the center of the "story" Avatar is an "inter-species" romance between the humanoid Na'vi and a Human. Our protagonist falls in love with an "alien" woman and an "alien" culture, abandons all to quite literally "go native." In my opinion the whole exercise is at best sloppy sci-fi; the Na'vi could easily be swapped with any idealized aboriginal tribe on earth (if their mysticism was real), the setting could be any tropical forest (with phosphorescence), and the Marines could be employees any colonial company of the 17th-19th century without any major change to the story. This is sci-fi that I hate as the technology and setting aren't used to explore any interesting aspects of humanity and the robots and aliens are just there to provide a CGI spectacular.
Imagine if instead our protagonist had to deal with an environment and 
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