James Cameron's Avatar seems to have spawned...

[IllicitPopsicle]

a "new wave" of radicalized people. Lemme explain before I get tomatoed in the face (and yes, this belongs in chit-chat) for supposedly "supporting" escapism.

Right, so I started to learn the Na'vi language after finding out about it (after watching Avatar). Regardless of how you felt about the movie (it was bollox) the language is quite interesting. ("Kaltxì ma tsmukan, oel ngati kameie. Ngaru lu fpom srak?" just sounds cool when spoken. Don't fucking judge me.) It's got all sorts of rules and sounds and parts of speech that English doesn't have, and it's gotten me interested in other languages and linguistics in general (and it doesn't sound horrid like Klingon). I'm planning on taking Spanish or possibly Chinese in the spring just based on my generally positive experience with Na'vi.

For the most part, the forum/teaching materials site I joined is unpolitical - mostly it's just dealing with the language and the usual fanboy-ism that exists around sci-fi stuff like this. However, there is a section called "The Real-Life Na'vi Tribe" that seems to be considerably more radical than the main board. They want to create a Na'vi-like (nìna'vi) community somewhere in the world to live apart from what they see as the destructive habits of man. Oddly, they seem to have no perception of the lifestylist/primitivist movement (under which they invariably fall) - which leaves them open for more "mainstream leftist" ideas, possibly. Some of them have even suggested more communistic approaches to their society.

I bring this up because I find it kind of interesting that an overtly capitalist movie that adopted (some might say, exploited) many of the worst stereotypes the system has to offer (the noble savage being one of them) - and let's face it, a movie that drew over a BILLION dollars at the box office ain't no direct help to the revolution, communist, anarchist or otherwise - seems to have at least partially radicalized a good-sized number of people without actually having any solid radical message.

Your thoughts?

[Q]

Your thoughts?
Get a life (no, really).

[IllicitPopsicle]

:laugh:

[ContrarianLemming]

It's such a good movie that I'll learn Na'vi for Lenin

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Didn't Lenon once advocate Ido as a world language?

[Pirate Utopian]

Get a life (no, really).
This.

Avatar was shit through and through.

[gorillafuck]

But wait, I thought RAAN's main enemy was nerds?:lol:

[Plagueround]

With the number of actual indigenous people currently playing Avatar: Real Life Edition (facing land theft, environmental destruction, and erosion of culture), I'm sure the best way to honor, support, or join the cause would be to learn a mash up fictional language and adopt a mash up fictional culture, prancing around in campgrounds mocking our traditional communities by acting like 10 foot tall cats. Good thing most of these people will never bother to follow through.

[Os Cangaceiros]

But wait, I thought RAAN's main enemy was nerds?:lol:

RAAN is currently waging a relentless wedgy & swirly war against nerds as we speak. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, buuuuut...

[Salyut]

It's such a good movie that I'll learn Na'vi for Lenin

Blue Cat Aliens: An Infantile Disorder.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

You guys hate avater as capitalist propaganda yet the conservatives despise it for being anti-american.

Funny how things turn out.

[IllicitPopsicle]

You guys hate avater as capitalist propaganda yet the conservatives despise it for being anti-american.

Funny how things turn out.

Lol this.

Honestly I thought the movie was shit, I just had a passing interest in the language and I made some observations.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Lol this.

Honestly I thought the movie was shit, I just had a passing interest in the language and I made some observations.

Yeah I thought the movie was pretty crappy as well.A lot of good special effects and CGI and stuff but so friggin long it rendered it impotent of whatever story it was trying to tell.

The only three hour movie I'm willing to watch more then once is The Color of Magic (Such funny fantasy satire).

[Animal Farm Pig]

I've been visiting an internet community to learn and practice newspeak, and some of the comrades there had a similar idea.

Funny coincidence. I think our real life community would be plusgood.

[The Vegan Marxist]

What exactly was wrong with Avatar? I thought it was a brilliantly played out movie. And where do you get that it's "capitalist propaganda"? (never really tried looking at it through an economical perspective anyways)

[graymouser]

Didn't Lenon once advocate Ido as a world language?
The only reference I found to Lenin and any auxiliary language was:

“Lenin several times spoke about Esperanto and very unfavourably, considering it to be too artificial, simplified and lifeless...” - M.J. Ulyanova, Lenin's sister, in footnote here: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lanti/1931/manifesto.htm

Nothing on Ido at all.

Stalin was pretty hard on Esperantists. China has used Esperanto for international PR reasons (El Popola Ĉinio was a well regarded magazine for some time) as has Cuba - Radio Havano Kubo is a regular program, and they hosted a recent Universala Kongreso. But Ido has always been so marginal it never really clicked.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

What exactly was wrong with Avatar? I thought it was a brilliantly played out movie. And where do you get that it's "capitalist propaganda"? (never really tried looking at it through an economical perspective anyways)

I said that it was capitalist propaganda.I guess it technically isn't but I couldn't find a more accurate word to describe it in relation to the posts that I read.Others didn't like it and I needed a word to describe its relation to the right (conservitives hating it).

[Widerstand]

The only reference I found to Lenin and any auxiliary language was:

“Lenin several times spoke about Esperanto and very unfavourably, considering it to be too artificial, simplified and lifeless...” - M.J. Ulyanova, Lenin's sister, in footnote here: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lanti/1931/manifesto.htm

Nothing on Ido at all.

Stalin was pretty hard on Esperantists. China has used Esperanto for international PR reasons (El Popola Ĉinio was a well regarded magazine for some time) as has Cuba - Radio Havano Kubo is a regular program, and they hosted a recent Universala Kongreso. But Ido has always been so marginal it never really clicked.

Didn't know Lenin played in the Beatles.

[graymouser]

Didn't know Lenin played in the Beatles.
He was, as they said at the time, the "Nineteenth Beatle."

[NoOneIsIllegal]

You guys hate Obama the capitalist yet the conservatives despise him for being anti-american.
Fixed a few words, bro.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I heard Lenin briefly filled in after Stu Sutclife died but then got booted. He had a falling out with either Brian Epstein or Julius Martov, I don't remember.

I got the idea for Lenin (I make typos, bad girl) advocating Ido from this

http://www.revleft.com/vb/reality-rosa-alternate-t97484/index.html?t=97484



The Chinese and Persian revolutions posed with renewed force the questions of an all-Soviet second language and a new, rational-secular system of timekeeping to replace the Christian and Islamic calendars. Fierce debate raged in the Communist International and in Soviet society at large. The two major linguistic contenders were Esperanto and Ido, the latter of which won out after Lenin's promotion of Ido as "Esperanto with the chinks ironed out". Taught to Soviet children from preschool on, this fully regular, streamlined, "Spanish-sounding" planned language rapidly became the world's most spoken. This was helped by its being an order of magnitude easier to pick up than, say, English. Today it is spoken by more than 96% of humanity, with 59% listing it as their 'second first language'.

Of course I should no better than to usealternate history scenarios as a primary source.

Esperanto was promulgated in the PRC and the Eastern bloc but I don't know to what extent. I had a friend who was a grad student in linguistics at MGU (Moscow State Uni) in the 80s. She used to go to international Esperanto conferences around the world. She and her friends didn't take this too seriously, it was basically a form of subsidized travel abroad.

[Widerstand]

He was, as they said at the time, the "Nineteenth Beatle."

Explains their communist undertones :thumbup1:

[Kléber]

Nothing on Ido at all.
He said Ido was Esperanto with the kinks worked out.

[IllicitPopsicle]

Wow. My geekout turned into a discussion on conlangs and their relation to Lenin. XD

[synthesis]

What exactly was wrong with Avatar? I thought it was a brilliantly played out movie. And where do you get that it's "capitalist propaganda"? (never really tried looking at it through an economical perspective anyways)

You know how I know you're 16?

[Dimentio]

Actually, when I saw the film, I kinda expected them to reach a negotiated solution. No matter what you think, it was a brave thing to depict US soldiers as villains.

Extremely cheesy film, but people love cheesy stuff.

http://nickobeano.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/cheese_oh_cheese.jpg

[gorillafuck]

I'm also confused as to how it was "capitalist propaganda".

[Vanguard1917]

Putting aside its rubbish 'politics', crap film. I really struggled to sit through it. Cameron should have retired after T2 (i.e. on a high).

[Os Cangaceiros]

I'm also confused as to how it was "capitalist propaganda".

http://admintell.napco.com/ee/images/uploads/gamertell/McDonalds_Big_Mac_Thrill_Card.jpg

[Pirate Utopian]

I'm also confused as to how it was "capitalist propaganda".
It wasnt really. It was a really misguided "mighty whitey" movie though.

It was also crap.

[Mindtoaster]

ITT hipsters hate avatar

[Rusty Shackleford]

i saw v for vendetta for the first time last month, and i still haven't seen Avatar.

i have pretentious points.

[Os Cangaceiros]

lol go watch some truffaut or lynch ya noob