Avatar: Modern Though (Merchant)

Erik Ewing
Weitzenfeld
TU-TH 12:20-1:50
Avatar: Modern Though (Merchant)
The movie “Avatar” relates to many of the readings on modern thought that we have been studying throughout the semester, such as the Merchant readings on “Science and Worldviews.” The word mechanistic worldview is described as; “nature is dead,” composed of inert, substitutable, discreet parts that operate like cogs in a machine.” This word helps relate to Avatar since all of the nature on the planet was actually very alive. The trees and the earth were connected like the neurons of a brain, and were striving with energy and power. This is why the locals thought their ancestor’s spirits would all disappear and everything would be destroyed for them on their planet if the Army came in to cut down their home tree. All of the locals had special bonds by being literally connected to nature and even the animals. In Merchants reading on “Science and Worldviews” he explains that “the native peoples of America saw the earth as a mother, alive, active, and responsive to human action (Merchant 41).” Merchant’s ideals on nature relate exactly how the Na’vi tribe feels about nature and surroundings. Reductionism is defined as “the practice of analyzing and describing a complex phenomenon that are held to represent a simpler or more fundamental level.” Reductionism describes the concept of the movie since its premises was that this company just came in and invaded these locals territory to drill them for all their resources. This is a very complex phenomenon and this company is representing it on a smaller level. These contractors are just here to make billions of dollars and do not care at all that it is literally killing these people and there mysterious ways of life. Merchant’s article contains a quote that states “the removal of animalistic, organic assumptions about the cosmos constituted the death of nature.” One of the messages in the movie, just as Merchant states, was that removing these natives’ resources would come about a death of nature and their way of life. Another definition of the word reduction is to reduce complexity. All of the natives in the film were respecting the earth and using it for nurture. They hunted and used only the simplest resources such as horse aliens and bow and arrows. Their technology was far surpassed by the Army with their plasma guns and flying machines. Atomism is a “theoretical approach that regards something as interpretable through analysis into distinct, separable, and independent elementary components.” In other words, it is a theory that is reduced to a simpler element that has a complex idea. This relates to some of the scenes where all of the Na’vi were connected with the trees through the Eywa spirit. This physical bond helped them become connected with nature and even the animals. The process was simple for Na’vi, yet the actual bond they were feeling with nature meant a lot more than anyone could know. This is especially true when Neytiri and Jake bonded under the “tree of voices” to sexually express themselves through “tsaheylu.” Finally, an individual is a “single human being as distinct from a group, class or family. This definitely relates to Jake Sully since he goes from being in a wheelchair to become an avatar. He was ordered to go single handedly to help move the natives off the land so the contracting company could mine. Next, Jake was completely singled out at first by the Na’vi tribe since they knew he was not one of them and did not trust him or any of his people. Jake was very distinct from this group and in the end he became closer with the tribe then he could have ever imagined. The general could also be classified as an individual in the story since he was the complete opposite of Jake and would stop at nothing to finish his job. In some ways the quote by Merchant saying that “the need for a new social and intellectual order and new values of human and machine power, combined with older intellectual traditions, went into the restructuring reality around the machine.” This quote by Merchant is perfect for Jake since he is trying to stop the Army and their technology. He learns about the tribe and all of their old “intellectual traditions.” Jake believes that with the help of all the tribes and their knowledge they could work with the humans and combine customs, traditions, and technologies. “Avatar” is a complex movie with many metaphors on real life and especially on modern thought.