Hi Louis, You presented a good overview of the debate. I have been following it all closely.
I was floored by the Hollywood spectacle after viewing it with my daughter, 12. We both saw it as a blistering anti-imperialist punch against United States' military incursions. We viewed it as a lefty response to the Bush/Cheney Iraq invasion. We were thrilled that such a film passed muster. Note: My daughter qualifies as a "red diaper baby" and so I take partial responsibility for her mis-education. Now, on the deeper levels of how the flick evinces Western tropes (as in reproducing the White Man as hero- something that Churchill very importantly has denounced in several venues - including TV dramas like Laura Quinn, Medicine Woman) I must say that some of this is also true. Whether these ideological (or strategic) devices amount to a devastating indictment of the movie, I think not. But they need to be said. I'd like to compare Avatar with Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" to see how both of them work as popular education (or as the academics call it today, "public pedagogy"). With Avatar, I imagine that a great many viewers will not interpret it as I and my daughter did. . .it will be Lone Ranger stuff. . .or, chewing gum for the mind, quickly forgotten when they get home and turn on the NFL playoffs. . . But for millions, it will be something different. . .I'm hoping. . .in any case, people like us can frame the movie in a pedagogical manner to help citizens see the deeper connections more forcefully. . .I'll be doing it in the classroom. . . Avatar can be said to be a case where "the truth dazzles gradually" as Village Voice writer Jack Newfield wrote about his style of journalism. On the other hand, Michael Moore's Capitalism movie (which I missed at the theaters and am waiting now for DVD release - told it will be march) is more direct about the Dark Star of Capitalism which likely dooms us all. Moore's film is "left light" compared to what a camera would be in the hands of you, Perelman, Henwood, St. Clair, Cockburn and Moyers. . .but it does seek to name names. . . Yes, we need good films on John Brown, Karl Marx, Eugene Debs, Ho Chi Minh, and others from the left pantheon. I recently discovered that there was a British film on Tom Paine, but that it never got good distribution, apparently for political reasons. . .it can be ordered at: http://www.cfpf.org.uk/recommended/video/tp_vid-en.html Best, Brian -----Original Message----- From: Louis Proyect <[email protected]> To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition <[email protected]>; PEN-L list <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Jan 13, 2010 2:03 pm Subject: [Pen-l] The left debates "Avatar" http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/the-left-debates-avatar/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
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