The Avatar (2009) Question

Group 8: Why do you think the Na’vi were so quick to accept Sully into their culture after kicking others out?

I think the Na’vi were so quick to accept Sully because when the seeds of the sacred tree gathered towards him it means it was a great importance to have him welcomed in the tribe. I think Sully was deemed to be a special guy to be accepted in the tribe was because of the way he will empathize to help the tribe rather than help destroy it. The tree has a spiritual influence in the world of Pandora and the Na’vi worship this tree due to their understanding of what the balance of life means to them. Although, the Na’vi seem primitive, they are highly intelligent and their way of life helps preserve life itself as well as the balance in the nature. In the movie it is the year 2154, the future of Earth has almost completely destroyed most of their resources because they had consumed and wasted so much without respecting the way nature works. So then they must go to another world where resources are abundant and take it away from them. I feel like it is an important lesson to the present day in our real world because it shows how much resources we start recycling rather than wasting more. With the issue of global warming itself, I know that more bigger and worse natural disasters are bound to happen. The movie itself shows how different cultures are because one values life of nature more than the other which I think is due to the fact that we should start respecting the things given to us or we might not have enough in the end. So if we literally run out resources the action most people would take is to obtain them from any other places by any means necessary.  Therefore, we must try to preserve as much of natural resources that we have and create more ways to keep those alive in order for a better future rather than a wasteful one.

Sully’s Acceptance Into the Na’vi

I don’t think the Na’vi were necessarily quick to accept Sully into their culture — after all, they were against Sully after learning about his mission — but I do think that the Na’vi accepting Sully is due in large part to Sully’s acceptance of their culture. I took a couple anthropology classes last year, and I learned that when anthropologists do field work, they are more likely to have a more authentic experience and to get richer data if they fully immerse themselves in the culture, by learning the language and customs, dressing as the locals do, etc. This makes the locals more inclined to trust the anthropologist and accept them into their culture. I think that Sully did this in Avatar; once he truly immersed himself in the Na’vi culture, they saw him as worthy of their trust and worthy of being part of the Na’vi.

The Power of Good Vibes

 

The reason why the Navi accepted Sully into there culture when they had kicked others out is that the floating jellyfish landed on the arrow of Natiri as she was about to shoot him. Apparently, Awa the tree deity felt his vibe and realized he was special. Although Sully was a marine and seems to have somewhat of a dark past his experience becoming disabled made him humble and open to sympathizing with the Navi.

Awa the tree deity somehow recognized that he would be useful in protecting the Navi and Pandora because of his knowledge of human military tactics. Sully is something of a fallen hero in the story that climbs from the “shadows” and into greatness. This is a common theme in many stories.

In order to fully appreciate simple things in life, we must sometimes lose them to realize how valuable they really are. Jake Sully comes to appreciate the simple act of walking like no other human who has lost their walking ability can. I believe this allowed him to appreciate the simple lifestyle of the Navi and see the beauty and importance of there culture.

In the film, we get to see the main protagonist go from being paraplegic to being reborn in a new body that is stronger than the one he previously had. Sullies rise in morality then takes him further and gives him the ability to fly when he becomes Turukmakto and unites the all of the Navi tribes. We get to see the fallen hero regain and surpass his previous glory. None of the other humans that lived with the Navi previously had that “fall from grace” moment or the warrior background that sully had and hence Awa did not recognize them as useful in the struggle for the wellbeing of Pandora.

Dreams

I do not believe dreams are random. They are a collection of a multitude of items in your mind. I think that they are a way for your mind to work out all the things you experience throughout the day. I think the dreams you have do contain meaning. I have found that my dreams parallel my waking life and provide insight to what is going on in my mind. When I am stressed out, but try to put off thinking about that stress, my dreams become outlandishly stressful. This makes me look into my mind to determine what is stressing me out so I can work on it. In this way I think it is possible to learn things about the real world.

I think dreams have the power to teach you things about the real world in a way that dreams can create intense emotion for you. These emotions are experienced in situations in your dreams that you would not experience in real life. I think dreams like this can teach people what it would be like to go through these situations in real life.

Could Dreams Be Alternate Universes?

I believe dreams are simply projections of bits and pieces of our memories while we are sleeping. Sigmund Freud formed the hypothesis that dreams are wishes we had while we are awake expressed by our unconscious minds. However, that is only a hypothesis, and not a proven fact yet, but that’s what makes dreams intriguing. Although, dreams may feel random, there must be a reason why we dream what we dream. I find Freud’s explanation to be the most practical, but if we let our minds wonder a bit, there are many interesting ways to interpret the meaning of dreams. In the past I have thought of the idea that dreams are glimpses of alternate universes. According to string theory, there could very well exist a universe in which the situation from your dream exists, only in a parallel universe. This doesn’t mean your dream created a parallel universe though, just by nature of string theory where the possibilities are infinite, what you see in your dreams is real in a separate reality. Just to make things more confusing, imagine if the person you are in your dreams, dreams of your world when they sleep. The Japanese animated drama movie “Your Name” by Makoto Shinkai explores this concept by telling a story of two high school students who control each other’s bodies when they are dreaming. They’re depicted as being tied together by fate somehow by seemingly paranormal or hyper dimensional forces. So do dreams really have meaning? It seems that we naturally want to feel that way because of the mysteries and how bizarre dreams can be at times. If I’m being frank, I think Freud’s answer is boring. I enjoy idealizing the concept that dreams have hyper-dimensional meaning. If you’ve ever had the feeling of deja vu then maybe you understand what I mean when I describe the feeling as a feeling that the exact scenario had happened in past dream. Can our dreams be really telling the future? And if so, then why can we never catch the moment before it happens? Is it just our minds screwing up short-term memories with long-term memories? We may not have the answer for some time, but for now its worth dreaming about.

Afrofuturism Question

Group 8: Do you believe dreams are random? Or do you believe they have any meaning? Is it possible to learn things about the real world from dreams? Have you ever experienced this?

I think most dreams are random without meaning due to the brain processing things that we had experienced throughout the day. For example, I know sometimes that when I am asleep I would have dreams like walking across a street in a certain way and the next day when I would do this same event that it feels like deja vu, but I know its just something I do routinely. Although, sometimes there are some dreams that could mean something that might be just as important to me. For instance, I would have a bizarre dream about Mario Kart and being a super spy to save a certain item where in the end I die heroically trying to save an important document. Then with no context at all I only to bring myself to the conclusion to wake up and do my homework or essay that is due tomorrow. Dreams having meanings are relative to the person and how they interpret what they think they are. Some dreams are just dreams and is just a way for our brain to processes our experiences in our everyday life as well as what we have learned from it. There are also other dreams, where our brains are trying to remind us of something important, by playing with our memories and imagination. In the film, Pumzi, I thought it was amazing to think that dreams did really come as a premonition and actually come true. If we had the ability to foresee the future to do good and great things then I wish it was possible.

Pumzi Lecture

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beginning scene shows Asha’s dream of a tree and her falling into water. Do dreams mean anything? is it possible learn about the world through our dreams? are dreams our mind way of trying to make sense of things before we are consciously aware of them?

Communication in the surviving colony is limited to texting. There is no dialogue in the film and all of the characters show no facial expression. This lack of connection between characters may be an extrapolation of our generation’s obsession with digital forms of technology. Although everyone in the Maitu community appears to be living in close quarters in a well kept and organized society there is a palpable disconnect between all the characters. This lack of personal connection is most salient when Asha the main character communicates with the main counsel of Maitu. In such a technologically advanced society oral digital communication is probably possible however Wanuri Kahiu the director chooses to exclude both oral and body language communication to amplify the lack of interpersonal connection.

The main dystopian Narrative in Pumzi is the extent of control by the central governing forces. It is very probable that the society in that region of Africa was less totalitarian before the war and the subsequent lack of water. All throughout history leaders from all cultures have used an existential crisis as an excuse to extend their power. Many times it has been deemed necessary to overcome the adversity faced by a society.
During the time of the time of the Roman Republic circa 500BC whenever the Romans would face a military threat, they would funnel all of the power to the person who would be in charge of the cities defense. The elected leader would, in essence, become a temporary dictator. A famous example of this is Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus a legendary figure among the Romans because he relinquished absolute power after he defeated a rival army that threatened the republic. Eventually, it was another military leader by the name of Julius Caesar who would use a crisis in a faraway land to ultimately bring an end to the Roman Republic and usher in the age of Emperors.

More modern examples of this are Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong who used their countries respective crises to acquire total control over the countries which they ruled. In the United States, we saw this in the form of the Patriot Act after 9/11. It is known that in times of crises citizens are more willing to give up freedoms and privacy in exchange for safety. Many times these actions make sense. Centralization of power speeds up and streamlines the collective action needed to fight off enemies of the kind that threaten a nation.

Even though total centralized overreaching power might be necessary in a time of danger, once a crisis dissipates it is no longer needed. The problem with giving up power to an entity is that once any form of power has been relinquished it is very difficult to get it back.

One common method of control by totalitarian regimes is the use of propaganda and the quelling of independent thinking. Research in psychology shows that creative ideas tend to appear in the mental state of daydreaming. The inhabitants of Maitu are prescribed dream suppressants in efforts to decrease imagination and diffuse conformity among its inhabitants.
Asha escapes Maitu and travels to where the tree appeared in her dream. After a long dehydrating trek through the dessert Asha heads over to the tree that she sees only to realize its mirage. She proceeds to plants the sapling and lies down next to appearing to protect it. As the film ends the camera zooms out and the audience can see that life has returned to some parts of the world and as the credits roll we hear water and rain giving Asha’s dreams credence.

Sleep Dealer

In 2008’s Sleep Dealer directed by Alex Rivera, Rivera depicts a world in which humanity has evolved to being dependent on virtual media and virtual labor. Through the use of “nodes”, people are able to connect their nervous system to a global network where the possibilities seem nearly endless. Our main character, Memo is a computer hacker who accidentally picks up on a U.S. military channel which traces him to his home in Mexico. The U.S. air force mistaking him as a terrorist sends a drone to destroy his home, resulting in his father’s death. From this point, Memo begins his journey to Tijuana to find a way to support his family. In Tijuana, he acquires black market nodes and begins working in a virtual labor sweatshop known as a “sleep dealer”.

By connecting several input jacks to his nodes and wearing a special set of contact lenses, Memo is capable of working on a robot whose primary function is to work on constructing a building in the United States. Although, his pay is decent enough he is capable of sending extra money back to his family, his health becomes noticeably worse. A drawback to working in a sleep dealer appears to be that it drains the life from individuals and Memo also notes his vision becoming progressively worse the more he works. The old homeless people that Memo meets when he first arrived to Tijuana appear to all have cataracts on their eyes and resembles the way Memo looks when he is wearing the contacts, possibly hinting what the long term effects could be. During one of his shifts, an accident occurs causing another worker to have a seizure; however, afterward, everyone returned to work as if nothing had occurred.

Alex Rivera Interview 1

Alex Rivera Interview 2

What sort of message was Rivera trying to convey to his audiences? In an interview talking about his movie, Rivera discusses that the idea for Sleep Dealers had been in the works since he was attending college. For one of his projects, he said he made a sort film about his father immigrating form Peru to the United States and parallels it with the story of the potato which originates from Peru and ties it to his dad becoming a “Peruvian couch potato”. Why this relates to Sleep Dealer is because Rivera’s inspiration came from noticing the way his father watched a lot of Spanish television. Even though they lived in uptown New York where for his dad was a loss of Spanish language and culture in his surrounding. Through watching television was how he would connect back to his Mexican heritage.

Sleep Dealer represents how people use media as an escape to another world. People with nodes can feel complete immersion of experiences but lose connection to reality, such as when Memo first connects to the construction robot, he became imbalanced and almost fell over. In our society, people are addicted to their smart phones, and at times it distracts them from their surroundings. According to “Psychology Today”, 40% of the population has nomophopia, which is the fear of being without your phone. Seeing as dependent we are of our smartphones, what happens when humanity becomes dependent of virtual reality? As technology becomes more immersive, could it become even more addicting? The movie depicts a shirtless man in a cowboy hat who appears to be what William Anthony Nericcio explains as “tapped into some future cyber erotic space of pleasure and self-annihilation” (Nericcio, 2015). In this scene Rivera is trying to warn the audience about being technology dependent. The more time we spend in virtual reality could mean our physical lives will suffer. Hypothetically, if virtual reality became so well developed that it could process more information than real life then virtual reality could become the new medium of life while our physical realities begin to feel more like dreams.

Virtual Reality

Works Cited

Archer, Dale. “Smartphone Addiction.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 25 July 2013, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reading-between-the-headlines/201307/smartphone-addiction.

Nericcio, William Anthony. “Latina/o Dystopias on the Verge of an Electric, Pathological Tomorrow: Alex Rivera’sSleep Dealer.” Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, vol. 48, no. 1, Feb. 2015, pp. 48–54., doi:10.1080/08905762.2015.1021137.

 

Sleep Dealer Thoughts

 

The question for this blog is  “Imagine Sleep Dealer happened with a completely different country. What are the ramifications? Does it play out the same? Who or what, if anything, is affected?”

If Sleep Dealer had happened in a different country I imagine the whole concept would be the same. The whole point of sleep dealer is that labor can be exported to different countries for cheaper prices but without having an immigration influx.  The country where the labor is being imported would still be a country with much lower GDP or else there would be no point in hiring foreigners if the cost of labor was the benefit.

In theory, if the country changed to one that had a better human rights record such as Sweden I imagine that the workers would be treated better, have benefits, and also work shorter hours.

I believe the whole concept of sleep dealer would actually be beneficial for many people living around the word that would not otherwise have access to those jobs. As long as the safety of the connected workers is prioritized the injuries on site for construction workers and other dangerous jobs would decrease. The main problem with that kind of globalization of labor is the cost of domestic labor might be too high. High comparative prices of labor would essentially ship more jobs overseas and contribute to unemployment in the US. Overall though I believe the that the Dealer Technology is beneficial for the prosperity of the human race.

Sleep Dealer Question

If Sleep Dealer was in a different country like the Philippines I think the ramifications would be the same if the United States would not let others immigrate into the country. In some aspects, being in the Philippines would be a too far travel to get to the U.S. rather than in the movie where Mexico was just on the other side of the border. But if we were to look at it as if the U.S. were using surveillance to prevent airports in certain different countries to fly airplanes to the U.S. then it would apply just the same due to the overseas aspect.  According to “Latina/o Dystopias on the Verge of an Electric, Pathological Tomorrow: Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer,” by William Anthony Nericcio, he states,”By connecting his body to the net Memo controls a machine that performs his labor in America, sending his pure work without the body of the worker.”I chose the Philippines because I know that there is a history of many Filipinos migrating to the U.S. for the job opportunities and if Sleep Dealer was a possibility then the idea of having hard working Filipinos work for the United States without having to go overseas would sound like a good idea. It also affects the Filipinos because then they would not have to fly overseas to get more money to send to their families in the Philippines and not have to miss their families. Although, most people would want to work in better paying jobs with less labor for their bodies in which most Filipinos flock towards being a Nurse or any medical jobs. I think if in Sleep Dealer the United States created more advanced robots to do those medical jobs with being able to link into them then they would gain a lot more medical assistance.

References:

William Anthony Nericcio (2015) Latina/o Dystopias on the Verge of an
Electric, Pathological Tomorrow: Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer , Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, 48:1, 48-54, DOI: 10.1080/08905762.2015.1021137