Wednesday, January 27, 2010

MLK and Avatards

Caleb commemorated Martin Luther King Day the other week by writing a short blurb about the civil rights leader. Here is his original blurb and my translation, edited for spelling but not content:


About Martin. Martin had a dream. He had a speech. He made black and white people get treated the same. Someone shot him.

And that’s a child’s ironic view of Dr. King’s life in a nutshell.

***

This past weekend, I read something… disturbing. This comes from the Daily News: Your New York:

“The most attractive part of the movie is the way it whisks you away to a new world, which is hard to do these days with so many media outlets competing for our attention,” says Paul Levinson, professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University. “It really is moviemaking at its best. For 2½ hours, audiences are transported to a strange, exciting place that does not exist around them.”

In fact, some “Avatar” fans, better known as “Avatards,” have become so immersed in the movie that they suffer from withdrawal when it ends.

Chat rooms and fan forums have been full of testimonials from those who say they felt depressed and even thought of suicide after seeing the film, due to a longing for the beauty of the fictional planet Pandora.


Now, I have yet to see this film. John and I opted to see Sherlock Holmes over Avatar this past weekend. And I could almost understand how someone could become depressed to the point of considering taking their own life after viewing, say The Road or The Lovely Bones or Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.

Have you seen Avatar? And if so, have you since experienced depression and thoughts of suicide? If this be the case, I implore you to get help. Seriously. You need help. Or maybe a trip to the Adirondacks.

Avatards????

4 comments:

hokgardner said...

What sort of subliminal messages does Cameron put in his movies that causes people to see them over and over and over. Remember the furor over Titanic and the people (women) who saw it repeatedly? I hated that movie and have no intention of seeing Avatar.

But I highly recommend Young Victoria.

Holly said...

Titanic ruined my 21st birthday. I've heard good things about Young Victoria... probably will catch it on video.

Christine said...

I hated Titanic as well - but writing off Avatar because of Titanic is a travesty.

Avatar is worth seeing - I got to see it 3D IMAX. Good story and incredible visuals which completely immerse the viewer in this other world (which also might explain why people leave both amazed and slightly depressed).

The whole 'slightly depressed' thing says two things - one, Cameron successfully was able to impact his audience deeply with the telling of this story, and two, people need to get out more.

I agree - a trip to the Adirondacks is just the thing :)

how to ollie said...

Excellent post and writing style. Bookmarked.