Post Traumatic Avatar Disorder
February 5th, 2010 | Published in Blog | 4 Comments
Overboard fandom is nothing new but it’s interesting to me that fantasy is becoming more and more realistic…and brings with it more extreme problems. Besides the aforementioned Post Traumatic Avatar Disorder (people to whom to real world seems flat and colourless next to the world of Avatar), there’s also the widely reported nausea issue.
Art has long been used, among other things, as a form of escapism. And I’ve often curled up with a good book or lost myself in a movie to distract myself from a stressful day. But, in my opinion, this is a misuse of the form if taken to it’s extreme end…which is losing yourself in a movie and not being able (or willing) to find your way back to the real world.
And now, a song in which to lose yourself…HERE (Skip to 2:30 for the song)
February 5th, 2010at 10:37 pm(#)
Many of the youtube videos addressing ‘PTAD’ are either jokes, flaming rants, or simple-minded. The video linked in this blog itself seems to suggest the reason people are depressed is because the graphics are so realistic, and the surface beauty of this world, depicted with cutting edge technology, just makes our world look ugly. The realism and beauty are only small pieces of the dynamic that causes ‘PTAD.’
Consider first the Na’vi people. They are very large, strong, evidently have better eyes, ears, and perhaps olfactory senses. Their skin is visually more appealing and adapted, they don’t just look like hairless apes. They can live naked in a forest where we would be ‘like babies’ quite helpless. Their physical power makes them inherently more free whereas our weakness requires us to separate ourselves more and more from natural processes.
Consider second their world. There is inherently much greater depth of relationship with the plants and the animals; from various animals you can link minds with, to plants of all kinds that respond to touch, to a huge network of trees that you both live in, and that also are supremely intelligent and benevolent. This forest is flooded with relationships and inter-species community. Although it’s not completely harmonious, everything has a much stronger sense of where it stands spiritually in relation to the living things around it. And I don’t even mean spiritually in a metaphysical sense, but that on the level of their identities, these various life forms are designed to interact and cooperate to a much greater degree than we see on earth; it’s implied that it’s a part of who they are, to connect to eachother.
Third, consider that this film doesn’t just depict this more vibrant and abundantly alive and social system. It also depicts an average, unstudied, unqualified, even disabled human having complete first-person access to that race and environment, and eventually that tribe. All he does is lie down and close his eyes, and through his mind he enters a completely different place. It’s even implied in the movie that this is a means for him to get something back that he’s lost (freedom, legs), which is symbolic of other transitions he makes. I don’t doubt that his character would have experienced separation anxiety or ‘PTAD.’
People in modern times, who have the appropriate emotional depth and desires, watch this protagonist, project themselves onto him as is normal in storytelling, and enter through him (their avatar?) this world. It is full of physical life and beauty that is most tantalizing as a symbol of the powerful spiritual life and sense that everything -belongs- there. The power to fly, ride, live in the wild, live unclothed, the land that flies, the trees that grow to shelter you, these are all symbols of freedom and of natural wholeness that are quite relevant to our existential position. We face real problems, real frailties, physical and social and spiritual, that are easily distilled into the imagery of Avatar. Not to forget also the powerful, primal, and sincere relationships existing within the community of the Na’vi. It’s a common fantasy to want to leave the weakly cultured, confused and chaotic anti-society we perceive ourselves to be in, and be transformed and inducted into a place of powerful spiritual revelation, connection, and relationship; whether this fantasy refers to regaining something lost, or something we were meant to grow into, or some combination. So, it should be obvious why people are hurt by this movie; it strikes a deep chord in their spiritual and existential self that knows that things as they are, are not balanced, and that hopes there must be a higher nature, a Something Greater we are meant for. Something we fit into as naturally as the Na’vi in their forest, and as naturally as Jake fits into his ‘avatar.’ Many stories have been told along these lines, Avatar just happens to be the latest, most concerted and condensed symphony of symbols of a lush world made of trust and love and intimacy and power and freedom. It’s really quite natural for a spiritual being (speaking metaphysically this time) to be discontent with a spiritually aborted and disconnected world, and art of this nature is really just the opposite of a dishonest lullaby. But, the film itself was not a perfect symbol; the earth is not dead, and humans are not so one-dimensional. There is some taint of despair and apathy in how the film literally views humans, whereas symbolically it makes sense to despair in the symbol of fear and weakness; but that’s not an easy distinction to make for the average viewer. So the question for those who seem to have PTAD is, how do I channel these desires into a new reality on earth, that reflects the good things about Pandora; and also how do I take ownership of both the beauty here and my responsibility to what exists in reality? How do I strengthen my spiritual identity so that I have everything I need to cultivate a lush world of trust, love, intimacy, power, and freedom, which can surround me here in my life and not be trapped as a distant wistful fantasy?
February 9th, 2010at 1:10 pm(#)
I am in agreement with Senor Winchester; however I am not quite able to reciprocate in a manner as eloquent. Avatar equals genius, and I find no grounds to accuse the film (or its makers) of misuing the artistic “escapism” dynamic. Besides computer/video game lovers have been under the spell of the swarms of artistic virtual visual masters for years. Avatar is nothing new. And, in regards to those who claim to be depressed, we could certainly surmise that they have other issues than the loss of some temperal joy a film creates; which as Gabriel so brilliantly explained is in fact not the real issue. People long to escape, and its usually not because their lives are a complete horror, typically its quite the opposite; their lives are normal, they are healthy, and bored. An epidemic mainly attributed to the unanswered questions: Who am I? Why am I here? and Where am I going?
February 9th, 2010at 5:03 pm(#)
Great comments, thanks for the feedback …and I’m not accusing the film or makers of misusing the artform, rather the consumers who are misusing it. Cheers!
April 7th, 2010at 6:16 pm(#)
[...] take credit for something already created) and it’s already out there. I read the PTAD definition and symptoms of the already named fake disorder and, honestly, I find it kinda [...]