Comments on: Avatar

By: Nicolas Ward

Nicolas Ward — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:24:41 +0000

Whoops, I had it in my head that he was econ so I didn’t even think to check. Thanks, Arthur. Fixed.

By: Brian Barker

Brian Barker — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:50:29 +0000

And before “Avatar” and “Star Trek” there was Bill Shatner speaking Esperanto, in the horror film called “Incubus”.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F77k6SQX7iQ&feature=related

As an Esperanto speaker I found it terrifying! His Esperanto pronunciation that is, not the film.

Your readers may be interested in http://www.lernu.net :)

By: Kit

Kit — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:33:58 +0000

Which one? Unobtainium or shock-and-awe? Or shock-and-d’awwww?

By: Nicolas Ward

Nicolas Ward — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:48:11 +0000

I was basing that conclusion in some part on the fact that the audience at the showing I went to groaned at that one.

I hadn’t noticed the articulation on the lemur-things, I’ll have to look for that in my next viewing.

By: Arthur

Arthur — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:28:24 +0000

I disagree that “unobtainium” is a plausible in-setting name. In real life any magic material would almost certainly be named after some property it had or something it was used for. The “unobtainium” name is something we use for things in fiction that are impossible (hence we can’t obtain them in real life); anything that actually becomes possible becomes by definition not-unobtainium, and would be far more usefully classified and named after something that it actually did or was.

Also, Tim Burke is a history prof, not an econ prof.

By: Kit

Kit — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:53:23 +0000

Just two quick observations:

Regarding unobtainium, I actually liked that; it was refreshingly snarky, as well as being a plausible name in-setting. It was also nice because it was not the MacGuffin. Similarly, regarding “shock and awe”, why wouldn’t that phrase stick around for 150 years? Both “unobtainium” and “shock and awe” are things we have here and now, and I rather preferred that the movie didn’t do what so much near-future scifi does, and pretend that current vocal would just go away. Sure, drop current slang, but things like “shock and awe”? That’s gonna stay.

Regarding Na’vi limbs, the lemurs you see early on go some way to explaining what happened, if not why; their paired forelimbs had fused to the elbow, and they were the most likely nearest-relative to the Na’vi, so.