One Nerd Sings Na'vi Christmas Songs!

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Watchin’ James Cameron’s Giant Epic Collector’s Extended Super Bonus Edition of Avatar, and the goddamn adorable Sigourney Weavertar is showin’ off her school holding a copy* of—I am not making this up—Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax. This tells me two things:

1. Public education in Space Futureland is about as awful as it is here and now, if the best books you can get were written almost two hundred years ago, and

2. JAMES CAMERON IS FUCKING SUBTLE, YO.

Also, I continue to be highly pleased by the way a certain breed of geek has gotten interested in the Na’vi language. I usually don’t study other people’s conlangs with an intent to become fluent—too busy studying my own—but it’s a lot of fun to know that some people are.

Other Observations

First, I am trying to figure out what is up with Mo’at’s fancy forked pigtail double-queue. Is that what makes her a special shaman? ("Double nerve-braids! SO INTENSE!")

Second, I wish Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver were the human protagonists. They are the coolest humans, especially with the added stuff you get in this extended edition. Max also should get to do more.

And third, I am glad that they at least gave Selfridge (SUBTLE!!!!) a slight conscience, and didn’t make him a completely amoral company asshole. It’s possibly one of the most complex bits of characterization in the whole movie. And yes, that really isn’t saying much.

By the way, if you’ve got some hours to spare, the Rifftrax for Avatar is one of the best, containing the single funniest line I’ve ever heard. I would tell it to you, but it needs to be in context. Just know that it's right before the banshee-taming bit.


*Presumably one of those big damn copies librarians use for Story Time, since it was Na'vi-sized.

Comments

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

1. Public education in Space Futureland is about as awful as it is here and now, if the best books you can get were written almost two hundred years ago

Books from hundreds of years ago being treated as up-to-date and uber-relevant in THE WOOOOOORLD OF TOMORROOOOOOW bugs the hell outta me. A particularly egregious example (forgive my shameless TV Tropes-ese) came when I was listening to a Doctor Who audioplay the other day which took place in the mindscape of a girl from the 50th century. Said mindscape was populated by "characters from the books of her childhood" such as Alice Liddel, Dracula and the Artful Dodger. I can dig that audiences won't have the same immediate mental associations and connections with fictional books of the future, but someone at least *trying* would be nice.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

See, now, if they mixed in a few older, identifiable characters with some weird new ones representing whatever more recent books the girl had read, I would have bought it. Plus, that allows you a lot of freedom to create new characters ...

Star Trek was guilty of that, too, but in their defense I've seen them try to fill up the gaps in the culture--they just aren't really good at it.

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I remember that episode where Kirk and Abraham Lincoln have to fight Genghis Khan (or was that who it was?) plus a bunch of more future-y bad guys for the moral edification of those aliens. I do remember thinking it was nice they didn't *just* go for bad guys the audience knew, even if they did get marginal development at best.