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My theory about Avatar's initial success is that movies that become surprise box office and pop culture phenomenons generally contain a modern twist on some element of spirituality or philosophy that is lacking in western popular consciousness. This spiritual/philosophical element isn't the sole reason for the movies success, but appeal to some neglected spiritual or intellectual impulse in the audience is the secret ingredient that will elevate a simple crowd-pleasing heroic adventure story into a mega-hit. The most obvious example is with 'The Force' in Star Wars. Offering religion and mysticism stripped of all realworld baggage and specificity, it allows Star Wars to feature something modern stories almost never do: heroes overcoming a challenge through their faith in a higher power, even by direct prayer-like appeal to it in the moment of need. On top of that it is vaguely pantheistic, and has elements of eastern and new age concepts of qi or life force, so offered western audiences access to a form of spirituality not present in their religious tradition and stories inspired by it. The Matrix is another good example. Firstly, in that it provides audience's a modern and engaging parallel to concepts like Descarte's deceiver of supreme power or Plato's cave, so serves as an entry point to philosophical questioning of reality and perception that is generally neglected in day to day life and mass culture. Then it goes a step further, providing incentive for the epistemological inquiry by suggesting that gaining insight into the true nature of reality produces a meaningful change, granting special powers and abilities. As with the similarity between The Force and qi, this idea has some resemblance to eastern religion, particularly the idea of enlightenment and stories of magical Buddhist or Hindu masters, gurus and mahasiddhas. Now with Avatar there is obviously significant inspiration from Hindu mythology (beyond just the word 'avatar'), but the neglected element of spirituality it really appeals to is in its new agey, vaguely indigenous people's inspired idea of an environmentally focused pantheistic animism. Sure, this idea is hardly new, and as with the rest of Avatar could easily be criticised as hackneyed tribal native stereotype. But what Avatar succeeded in doing was to present this environmental spirituality in a way that modern audiences could, at least briefly, connect to. For one, its modernisation of the idea with a 'scientific' explanation that the entire ecosystem is a biological neural network helps to convert a spiritual idea into something acceptable in a highly materialist culture. More importantly though, by pairing the spectacle appeal of its special effects and 3D innovations with a depiction of "nature" it managed to simulate something close to the feeling of awe and wonder in the natural world. The experience of this emotion is essential to believing in environmental spiritualism and (sadly) is almost completely absent from contemporary popular consciousness, perhaps experienced by individuals in brief moments when making a special effort to seek out the natural world but not culturally or politically significant. The emotional experience of awe and wonder in nature might in itself be considered something approaching spiritual, alone and without attaching any more defined mystical or religious worldview to it. In fact, appeal to such an emotional experience acts as the secret ingredient in another notable blockbuster phenomenon Jurassic Park. But Avatar achieved this sense of awe and wonder with a deeply ironic trick, one that meant its 'appeal to neglected spiritual impulse' factor was time limited. Avatar simulated the awe of nature in a public disinclined towards it through appeal to something they are much more inclined towards: excitement and preoccupation with the new and novel experiences offered by technological advancements. The problem is that the public's preoccupation with technological spectacle is antithetical to a genuine experience of awe in nature. The wonder felt from experiencing a new technological feat like Avatar's visuals at the time of release is entirely dependent on the new advancement and novelty, whereas with nature it is the opposite. So once the newness of Avatar's visuals wore off so did their ability to inspire the sense of awe and wonder, without which it is unable to convincingly sell the environmental spiritualism. So now stripped of its mega-hit making 'appeal to neglected spiritual impulse' X-factor what is left is a standard action adventure that follows an easily identifiable "native romance" archetype, and the come down from the initial massive popularity provokes a greater criticism than it would otherwise merit.
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Aug 6, 2020 13:00
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| # ¿ Apr 18, 2024 13:49 |
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