@maporsche,
Quote:But she said the film, which so far has the second-highest worldwide box-office gross ever, still reminded her of Hollywood's "Pocahontas" story " "the Indian woman leads the white man into the wilderness, and he learns the way of the people and becomes the savior."
"It's really upsetting in many ways," said Lee, who is black with Jamaican and Chinese ancestry. "It would be nice if we could save ourselves."
Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of the sci-fi Web site io9.com , likened "Avatar" to the recent film "District 9," in which a white man accidentally becomes an alien and then helps save them, and 1984's "Dune," in which a white man becomes an alien Messiah.
"Main white characters realize that they are complicit in a system which is destroying aliens, AKA people of color ... (then) go beyond assimilation and become leaders of the people they once oppressed," she wrote.
"When will whites stop making these movies and start thinking about race in a new way?" wrote Newitz, who is white.
A narrative device is racist? The whole point of having an outsider come into the culture is so that you can explain that culture to the "aliens" watching the movie.
And re: Dune: Paul
is a messiah in that story. A prophesied savior.
When will SF critics stop seeing everything as being about race, and start thinking about literature as literature?