Rabbloggin'

he first time I heard the word AVATAR was many years ago, during the boom of cybernetic culture. An avatar is an embodiment: a new personification of a familiar idea. In the case of computers is what represents you in the virtual world as a manifestation of you. It is the equivalent of your profile picture. It is you but it is not exactly you, it is an image of you.
At the same time I learned it is a religious term, used a lot in Hinduism, where the Force takes different avatars to manifest itself in the human realm. “The embodiment of hope”; “the incarnation of evil”; “the very avatar of cunning. the manifestation of a Hindu deity (especially Vishnu) in human or superhuman or animal form; “the Buddha is considered an avatar of the god Vishnu”.

The key line that defines for me the essence of James Cameron´s film Avatar is “what a beautiful brain”. The story tells us of how human beings have achieved technology to project themselves into genetically engineered alien bodies. As the human characters in the film use the genius of science and technology languages, we learn that the native species of the planet have achieved through other means, the same end. The “alien” natives of the planet, the 11 feet tall Na’vi, have the power, as well as most of the creatures that inhabit the planet Pandora, to interconnect physically with the mind of others. Other members of their species, other animals, and to what they consider the Tree of Life itself, the big brain of the planet, the source of life. The whole planet is interconnected in a visually clear way, giving the sensation that the whole planet is one giant organism, like a coral reef, a giant brain in which every creature, every plant, every thing, is a synapse, another branch of the brain lighting electrical discharges against each other.
I believe Beauty is in the power to interconnect, where the pure self becomes intensely aware of the other, where that illusion of “otherness” drops. Then you see yourself in a connection with what you thought was something separated. True empathy is created in this connection, and this connection can be a spiderweb of other interconnections ad infinitum.
The en vogue word and philosophy trying to spread around the world is to be Green. Green is saving the tree, but there has been for a while another movement. Blue. Blue is saving yourself through the awareness of the interconnectivity of this little blue planet, something so small and insignificant in the vast perspective of the universe, yet each of its parts so complex, so unique, so precious. For example, neurons in our head do some interaction at night, and from that this moving soul creates a story. This story spreads to the neurons of other moving souls. And they exchange an experience that was “imagined”. A simple spark caused by all the salts and chemicals in your body, made more connections than those stars in the universe out there, to those whose magnitude makes us feel so small. They illuminate and send these messages through the material construct that allows them to exist in the physical realm (i.e your flesh-made brain, with all its complexities and connections, and all the machinery that we maintain working through the conversion of energies borrowed from other existing things flowing with more of these sparks, some of us call them vitamins, nutrients, klipot, energy, calories, whatever you call or count them.
The beauty of how the actors themselves are avatars in this amazing new technology is almost awe inspiring. Cameron has always pushed the technologies with his movies (The Abyss, T2, Titanic, and his robotic submarine explorations in IMAX3D). He created his childhood dream-movie (remember, the guy who made the top-selling movie of all time, with this amazing imagination!) so they created a whole planet in the most realistic way possible.
The plot is criticized by some because it is “simplistic”. So is Titanic then “just” another love story. Poor guy meets rich girl, just happens to be in a sinking boat. People simplify stories when their content is primal, basic. They call it childish sometimes. These are the people who became so “adult” that killed their inner child, the inner Buddha, the pure part of your soul that stare you in the face and tell you “there is no spoon”.
For my part, I love basic, Jungian stories, and this movie tells many layers of a myth necessary for our times delivered in a beautiful, artistic way of moviemaking, the dream factory, the machine that we have created through language, in this case computers and cameras, and spread the stories we want to share, the dreams we make into reality, the avatar of our consciousness trying to come from dreamworld into this flesh reality. The movie carries many messages for the new generation, those who are always socializing through Nintendo DS, Facebook, Tweeter, etc etc. This interconnected generation needs to remember that their images are just avatars. There is a reality behind, as if the “real” world is just another “Facebook”, another place where we put our image, a representation of us, but not us. Not really, but almost.
AVATAR tells about the need to protect all the outer layers of interconnectivity, from the inner, dream-walker self, to the tribe, the extended surrounding, the society, the city, the planet, beyond. This masterpiece of 21th century movie making is here to teach us, just as the characters on the movie,about the interconnectivity of this electric signatures we call synapses, brain activity, personality, is connected on a much higher level.