Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Experience

10 Possible Sources of "Avatar" in Classic Science Fiction

2010-01-05T20:34:00.001-08:00

Going beyond the obvious comparisons with "Ferngully" and "Dances with Wolves"
Article by Avi Abrams

By now many of you have seen James Cameron's epic "Avatar" and marveled at its breakthrough 3D immersion technology. Visually, the movie is beyond breathtaking. Perhaps it can even be compared to the advent of widescreen in movie history.

Plot-wise, however, it is a simple, old-fashioned and perhaps overly familiar adventure, bringing to mind a range of stories from "Pocahontas" to Miyazaki's "Nausicaa" and "Princess Mononoke". Some see this as a drawback, others praise the straightforward approach to story-telling and dialogue - after all, it's one less thing to distract you from the awesome spectacle that unfolds on the screen.

"Yes, it is predictable in a way that roller coaster ride is predictable", says one reviewer. Likewise, it's even possible that the main character was intentionally made somewhat bland and toned down in personality, so that any viewer could identify with the main hero - seamlessly inhabiting his "avatar" to explore the glorious new world of Pandora.

It is not our intention to argue how and if the plot of "Avatar" could've been made better or more original. After all, it is an old-fashioned fairytale; a personal dream of maestro James Cameron many decades in the making.

Instead, we are going to list some possible influences from obscure and even forgotten classic science fiction sources that came to our mind while watching "Avatar" - there is no telling if James Cameron read any of them or was influenced by any particular tradition, but it was a good fun to find out and remember the jolly good reads that they are (see if you can remember any of the stories mentioned below, or if you can think of other ones):

1. Robert F. Young - "To Fell a Tree". First published in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1959, this obscure and rarely reprinted novella is perhaps the closest to the plot of "Avatar".

A giant tree sacred to humanoid natives razed to the ground by the greedy, crazed human military outfit - the parallels are too many to recount here. Robert F. Young's prose is powerful and efficient, and the ending evokes similar emotional response to that of "Avatar". It is also a criminally under-rated piece of fiction - we can only rejoice that "Avatar" brings it to life to beautifully - but it's also sad to see top-notch science fiction stories by Robert F. Young remain out of print and uncredited for so many years.

The idea of "projected consciousness" into the bodies of natives on hostile planets was also explored at length in classic science fiction. Here are a few examples:

2. Poul Anderson - "Call Me Joe" First published in Astounding Science Fiction in April, 1957. Read more detailed analysis here.

"Like Avatar, Call Me Joe centers on a paraplegic — Ed Anglesey — who telepathically connects with an artificially created life form in order to explore a harsh planet (in this case, Jupiter). Anglesey, like "Avatar"'s Jake Sully, revels in the freedom and strength of his artificially created body, battles predators on the surface of Jupiter, and gradually goes native as he spends more time connected to his artificial body."

3. Ben Bova - "The Winds of Altair" First published as a novel in 1973. Six-legged beasties, remote-control "avatars", greedy terraforming humans.

"The classic SciFi novel tells the story of humans trying to terraform the planet of Altair IV, where they cannot breath the air. The natives of this planet are a cat-like race and humans are able to transfer their minds into these cats in order to explore the planet safely. Throughout the course of the novel, the main character inhabits the body of one of these cats (just like in Avatar) and grows to side with the natives against the Military in the story." (source)

4. Clifford Simak - "Desertion" First published in November 1944 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Same idea: human research team on the surface of a hostile planet needs to inhabit "avatar" bodies more suitable to environment. One small problem - those who were sent did not come back, but "deserted" and remained behind, choosing a more liberating alien culture.

Another work very similar in plot and feel is actually an award-winning piece by a well-known writer:

5. Ursula K. Le Guin - "The Word for World is Forest" (more info). Published back in 1972, in Again, Dangerous Visions, it was even a winner of the 1973 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

Similarities? Well, how about a forested planet with the deeply "connected" natives, a human military raid on a huge tree-city and a subsequent retaliation of natives... some scenes seem incredibly familiar, even though Le Guin plot is markedly deeper and more sophisticated. We highly recommend seeking out this book if you thought the plot of "Avatar" was one-dimensional - it should fill in all the details you would ever need.

Other visual and atmospheric clues (no similarities with the plot):

6. Harry Harrison - "Deathworld" First published in Astounding Science Fiction, January-March 1960. A militaristic gung-ho colonization with disregard for complexities of native life. Top-notch depiction of tough space marines as only Harrison can do it. Extremely hostile life-forms populate that planet: Avatar's quote "everything that crawls, flies or squats out there... will want to kill you" seems right at home with "Deathworld". Highly recommended as a great adventure read.

7. Some other wonderful examples from the Golden Age of Science Fiction also come to mind: "Exploration Team" by Murray Leinster; hilarious interactions between human military colonization force and natives in various stories by Eric Frank Russell ("...And Then There Were None", "Somewhere a Voice", etc.) Various jungle planet environments were nicely explored by Robert A. Heinlein in his juvenile-fiction novels, and also in Bob Shaw's "Who Goes There?".

(on the right - Magazine of F&SF with Robert F. Young's novella "To Fell a Tree")

8. Anne McCaffrey - "The Dragonriders of Pern" series. This is an obvious allusion to exhilarating sequences of taming and riding on dragons - very analogous to the thrilling winged-beast taming in "Avatar".

(image via)

9. Na'vi - Dark Elves, anyone? Or if you'd like, "Elfquest" (more info). A cult comic series started in 1978. There are very broad visual similarities, but I can't stop thinking of dark elves when I look at na'vi ways and romance.

10. The interior and exterior views of the spaceship which brings Jake Sully to Pandora reminds me of Alastair Reynolds "Revelation Space" light-hugger ships (significantly scaled down, of course). The opening sequence can easily serve as an opening for hypothetical "Chasm City" movie, for example. The flying mountains and islands are also a feature of Alastair Reynolds great story "Minla's Flowers".

So here is a brief list of possible influences on visual creation of "Avatar" and examples of classic science fiction that elaborate on the (very basic) "Avatar" plot. Let us know of other similarities you've noticed - after all, just like the case with "Star Wars" we are witnessing the birth of yet another mythology, and it is only proper that we should honor the original sources of this particular science fiction tradition.

For more details on Pandora's gorgeous world visit Pandorapedia site.

BONUS: do you remember the wonderful tiny helicopter-like creature that lit up the night on Pandora? It turns out to be the design of Leonardo da Vinci, no less:

1972 - Year in SF&F: March

2009-09-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE
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James Tiptree, Jr.
"And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side"
© F&SF, Mar 1972
Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home, 1973
--short story : 1972 Nebula
--short story : 1973 Hugo
--short story : 1973 Locus
--/ third place space sf story
--/ wonder award
--/ style award
--/ emotion award
--/ shock value

The way how humans get plastered over some aliens, and fall head-over-heals in love (or lust) spells disaster for humanity's self-esteem and erodes its soul... This is a sad, shining, bittersweet, irresistible tale, the true masterpiece of story-within-a-story narration and simply gorgeous alien / spaceship visions. I am in awe of Alice Sheldon - one of the best space adventure / space romance writers ever to grace the face of the Earth.

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1984 - Year in SF&F: February

2009-09-29T20:41:00.001-07:00

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE
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Edward Bryant
"Dancing Chickens"
© "Alien Sex", ed. by Ellen Datlow, 1990
"Light Years and Dark", ed. M. Bishop, 1984
--/ emotion award
--/ shock value

This story is probably the most offensive in the whole history of science fiction, no wonder that it could not get an editor brave enough to publish it, nor was reprinted ever since in author's story collection. However, it reminded me of "District 9" sci-fi movie, and many other "alien abuse" stories. This time, though, it is pretty unflinching in its approach, so see if you can stomach it.

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2000 - Year in SF&F: March

2009-09-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE
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Mark Z. Danielewski
"House of Leaves"
© 2000, Random House
--novel : 2000 Bram Stoker Award
--first novel : 2000 Int. Horror Guild Award
--first novel : 2001 Locus Poll
--novel : 2001 British Fantasy Award
Review by Deanna Josephson

"House of Leaves" is not a book, it's an experience. Mark Z. Danielewski grabs your attention, distorts your reality, makes you question your own sanity, then leaves you spent, disoriented and not quite the same as when you started this novel.

It opens with a brooding, inventive and unreliable narrator Johnny Truant. Johnny brings us along as he discovers a trunk of papers inside the apartment of a recently deceased man, Zampano, who died under suspicious circumstances. The trunk contains Zampano's collection and commentary of academic dissections of a documentary film, the Navidson Record. The Navidson Record is the axis of the story-within-a-story-within-a-story framework of the book, and documents the increasingly surreal and quietly horrific experience of a family who comes home to find a door that hadn't existed before. As Johnny reads through the papers and commentary he finds that Zampano, and perhaps he himself, is losing his grip on sanity as his obsession with the house grows deeper and deeper.

The storyline of "House of Leaves" is only a piece of the overall experience. The book's structure lends an additional layer of depth to this literary collage. The labyrinthine narrative is framed by an equally dizzying array of footnotes, lists and lists of names, texts that need to be decoded, texts that wind around the page... all of which are riddled with bland passages of intense academic discourse. Although some would argue that the layout of the book is pretentious and ostentatious, I think it's a necessary part of the overall artwork. "House of Leaves" is not an easy book to read, but it's worth the experience.

The book contains a large appendix which needs to be read thoroughly in order to get as much sense of the story as possible. This book is really like a collage, and like a collage, you can't look at each individual piece... you have to look at how all the pieces fit together. If you can make it through the layers of stories, ivory tower discourses, chaotic layout and haunting images, then take a step back and look again. I get the feeling the book will mean something different to you than it did to me.

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"Steampunk" Anthology, Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

2009-09-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

Making all gearheads and sci-fi punks in the world "feel lucky", since 2008

(right image credit: John Coulthart)

The term Steampunk is applied almost too often these days, with some sub-genres even branching out from it like from a twisted, tangled tree - dieselpunk, greenpunk, stitchpunk, you name it (see definitions of various "punk" literary varieties here). This book, however, aims to preserve the purity of the steampunk mainstream by collecting some ripe and delicious fruits from that rapidly-branching tree. Although none are very recent - most of the included stories are from the 1990s and before - there is a reason for that:

"The goal of the anthology was to collect the iconic first/second wave stories along with some interesting variants, also mostly from ten years ago or earlier," says co-editor Jeff VanderMeer, "Steampunk II, which we're working on now, collects reprints from the last ten years".

So, if you haven't read this book yet, what are you waiting for? Here is a handy guide to what's inside the covers (reviewed by Avi Abrams).

(image credit: John Coulthart)

Scroll down to read reviews of individual stories:

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James Blaylock
"Lord Kelvin's Machine"
(Langdon St.Ives series)
© IASFM, Dec 1985
book: Arkham House, 1992
--collection : 1993 World Fantasy
--sf novel : 1993 Locus/19
--/ fourth place sf story
--/ wonder award
--/ adventure award
--/ style award

If you had to include one quintessential story in the genre-defining anthology of steampunk, this would be a good choice: it covers all the bases, and is unpretentious enough to fill most stomachs hungry for a quick meal of the Victorian Bizarre.

"A scientist-explorer Langdon St. Ives and his valet, Hasbro, pursue their arch-nemesis, the hunchback Dr. Ignacio Narbondo, across Norway, contesting Narbondo's plot to destroy the earth and, later, efforts to revivify Narbondo's apparently frozen corpse. In the process St. Ives gains access to a powerful device created by Lord Kelvin, which allows St. Ives to travel through time."

Quite an enjoyable steampunk romp through the (now already cliched) staples of the genre: deliciously cheesy arch-enemies, a plot spiced with mighty volcanoes and swell Victorian technology. Good stuff, recommended.

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Ian R. MacLeod
"The Giving Mouth"
© IASFM, March 1991
Voyages by Starlight, 1996
--/ fourth place f story
--/ wonder award
--/ idea award
--/ style award
--/ shock value
--/ rare find

This is the most peculiar epic fantasy you ever likely to read (I realize this is quite a statement). Very stylish, very Ursula Le Guin-like at first (think of her low-key "Orsinian Tales"), it evolves into a ferocious Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique spawn, at once disgusting and irresistibly complex. Wonderful tour-de-force, liked it very much.

"The Giving Mouth" features a fantasy landscape of mining, coal and smoke where knights in animated armor ride steamhorses made of "liveiron." Soon it enters highly-cinematic territory, later explored by Michael Swanwick and China Mieville: post-industrial monsters with weird eating habits, wonderfully detailed epic quest and gross-out ending.

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Joe R. Lansdale
"The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel"
© 2000, The Long Ones
Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories, 2004
--/ fourth place f novella
--/ wonder award
--/ adventure award
--/ shock value

"Dime Novel" it very well may be, but if it had appeared for sale some hundred years ago (unrated and unabridged), it could've caused a few fatalities among unprepared Victorian readers, through sheer shock and utter, disgusted disbelief. It is an entirely wicked novella, and is meant to be just that. I daresay it's even more offensive than Lansdale's "Zeppelins West" - but for all that hype and coarse sensationalism, it is a gorgeous example of no-holds-barred Wild West Steampunk Blockbuster. It is a blast, like many, many works of Joe R. Lansdale in his screwed-up version of the Wild West (think "cow-punk" plus a few "Saw" movies)

It is one heck of a ride, and it has everything a dime novel should have - mystery, wonder, adventure and crazed horror mixed with deeply dark atmosphere. You've been warned, but by all means, if you just watched, say, "Crank 2: High Voltage" and came out unaffected, then you'll see no problem with this novella either.

This sort of ferocious entertainment in literature reminds me of some wild and crazed Clark Ashton Smith stories in the 1930s "Weird Tales" pulp.

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Ted Chiang
"Seventy-Two Letters"
© Vanishing Acts, ed. E. Datlow, 2000
Stories Of Your Life And Others, 2002
--novella : 2001 Hugo
--novella : 2001 World Fantasy
--shortlist : 2001 Sturgeon
--novella : 2001 Locus /4
--short form : 2001 Sidewise W
--foreign short story : 2001 Hayakawa W
--translated short story : 2002 Seiun W
--/ third place sf story
--/ idea award
--/ wonder award
--/ style award

I found this story a bit long and tedious, but these are probably the only faults in what turned out to be intriguing and entirely unique tale. The concept here is that Names (words) are truly powerful tools capable of creating or modifying reality – this is an important idea in ancient Hebrew culture, starting from Adam, who named (defined, co-created) all the animals in the Garden of Eden. In this story we have some ultimate "incantations" helping robots to achieve their peak performance, but of course, meddling with these building blocks of the Universe leads to the deeply disturbing results. If you remember, a similar idea was the basis for Arthur Clarke's "Nine Billion Names of God", but Chiang gives it a highly sophisticated and learned makeover, creating another classic tale from the Genesis-old spiritual know-how.

Very impressive mixture of high-flight science fiction and meta-physical and meta-spiritual conjecture, which is really hard to do without overdoing it... but Chiang succeeds spectacularly (and garners a plethora of awards in the process).

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Michael Chabon
"The Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance"
© McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, No.10, 2003
--/ fourth place f story
--/ wonder award
--/ style award

I will describe my experience of discovering fiction by Michael Chabon: at first bite it does not seem to be that intense, or delicious. You get into the story for a couple of pages, then you realize that the characters are too bizarre, the world-view does not fit, the plot does not compute, and even the words themselves that author uses are baroque, esoteric, obtuse... in other words, if you approach it lightly, Chabon's prose is not going to make much sense. But now you are too intrigued. You go back a couple of pages, read it again with more attention and respect - and BAM! you are hooked (or doomed) to read the whole story, with rewards piling up in every paragraph.

A Planetary Romance? Yes, but not in a conventional way. Subtle. Subdued. Emotional undercurrents require a careful appreciation of how characters speak, think and (rarely) behave. This is more of a meditative piece, and yet it's not lacking in adventure. If this is your first taste of Michael Chabon's fiction, I envy you. Now you will have to go and get more... more...

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Paul Di Filippo
"Victoria"
(Steampunk Trilogy)
© Amazing Stories, Jun 1991
Steampunk Trilogy, 1995
--/ third place f novella
--/ shock value
--/ humour award
--/ wonder award
--/ style award

Not only is the entertainment value of this novella is through-the-roof, the significance of its appearing as far back as 1991 is notable as well: it pushes the envelope in more ways than one, defining steampunk black comedy with its own brand of humour.

Try not to grin as you read: naughty, improbable, grotesque, the tale bests itself at every turn, featuring such wildly bizarre concoctions as a homunculus/newt on the throne of England, nuclear train engines and "ideoplasm"-powered transdimensional prairie schooners, with inevitable Lovecraft monsters duly appearing in the "Hottentots" sequel.

This is a highlight of any summer reading (for just like in the movies, there has to be a "Summer Blockbuster Reading Season"). You are not going to forget it, but some readers might think that Paul Di Filippo goes too far into the territory they can't follow.

Also included in this anthology:

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Michael Moorcock
"The Warlord of the Air" (nv)
(Oswald Bastable series)
© 1971, DAW Books, Ace Books
--/ cool sf novel
--/ wonder award
--/ adventure award

Seminal early steampunk novel, with wonderful airships jumping off the page, and Japanese animation-like action thunders into your ears - with some color and silly plot to boot.

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Stepan Chapman
"Minutes of the Last Meeting"
© 1998, "Leviathan 2", ed. J. VanderMeer
--/ cool f novella
--/ wonder award

The Nuclear Age comes to the Imperial Russia just before the October Revolution. A great - even brilliant - idea, but could be better plotted and executed. As it is, this is an entertaining, but somewhat shallow read.

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Neal Stephenson
"Excerpt from the Third and Last Volume of Tribes of the Pacific Coast"
© 1995, "Full Spectrum 5", ed. J. Hershey
--/ cool sf story
--/ idea award

Tribes of the Suburbia: the Mall Sub-Culture. Basically, more cyberpunk than steampunk, also reminiscent of the George A. Romero's iconic "Dawn of the Dead" - "The stand-off between the gentlefolk adventurers and researchers and an enraged tribe of Mad Max-esque petrolhead barbarians in the ruins of a shopping mall".

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(image credit: John Coulthart)

ALSO READ: "THE SURREAL OFFICE" ->
...and an interview with Jeff VanderMeer ->

1995 - Year in SF&F: January

2009-09-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE
Read other issues here

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Neal Stephenson
"Excerpt from the Third and Last Volume of Tribes of the Pacific Coast"
© 1995, "Full Spectrum 5", ed. J. Hershey
--/ cool sf story
--/ idea award

Tribes of the Suburbia: the Mall Sub-Culture. Basically, more cyberpunk than steampunk, also reminiscent of the George A. Romero's iconic "Dawn of the Dead" - "The stand-off between the gentlefolk adventurers and researchers and an enraged tribe of Mad Max-esque petrolhead barbarians in the ruins of a shopping mall".

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1998 - Year in SF&F: January

2009-09-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE
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Stephen Chapman
"Minutes of the Last Meeting"
© 1998, "Leviathan 2", ed. J. VanderMeer
--/ cool f novella
--/ wonder award

The Nuclear Age comes to the Imperial Russia just before the October Revolution. A great - even brilliant - idea, but could be better plotted and executed. As it is, this is an entertaining, but somewhat shallow read.

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Edward Bryant
"Ashes on her Lips"
© Sirens, ed. E. Datlow, 1998

Strange, a bit revolting tale about a "sex-after-death" and a widow's weird mourning.
review: 16-Jul-06 (read in 2006)

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1991 - Year in SF&F: June

2009-09-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE
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----------------------------------------------

Paul Di Filippo
"Victoria"
(Steampunk Trilogy)
© Amazing Stories, Jun 1991
Steampunk Trilogy, 1995
--/ third place f novella
--/ shock value
--/ humour award
--/ wonder award
--/ style award

Not only is the entertainment value of this novella is through-the-roof, the significance of its appearing as far back as 1991 is notable as well: it pushes the envelope in more ways than one, defining steampunk black comedy with its own brand of humour.

Try not to grin as you read: naughty, improbable, grotesque, the tale bests itself at every turn, featuring such wildly bizarre concoctions as a homunculus/newt on the throne of England, nuclear train engines and "ideoplasm"-powered transdimensional prairie schooners, with inevitable Lovecraft monsters duly appearing in the "Hottentots" sequel.

This is a highlight of any summer reading (for just like in the movies, there has to be a "Summer Blockbuster Reading Season"). You are not going to forget it, but some readers might think that Paul Di Filippo goes too far into the territory they can't follow.

----------------------------------------------

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2003 - Year in SF&F: November

2009-09-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

THE WONDER TIMELINE: SF&F RETROSPECTIVE
Read other issues here

----------------------------------------------

Michael Chabon
"The Martian Agent, A Planetary Romance"
© McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, No.10, 2003
--/ fourth place f story
--/ wonder award
--/ style award

I will describe my experience of discovering fiction by Michael Chabon: at first bite it does not seem to be that intense, or delicious. You get into the story for a couple of pages, then you realize that the characters are too bizarre, the world-view does not fit, the plot does not compute, and even the words themselves that author uses are baroque, esoteric, obtuse... in other words, if you approach it lightly, Chabon's prose is not going to make much sense. But now you are too intrigued. You go back a couple of pages, read it again with more attention and respect - and BAM! you are hooked (or doomed) to read the whole story, with rewards piling up in every paragraph.

A Planetary Romance? Yes, but not in a conventional way. Subtle. Subdued. Emotional undercurrents require a careful appreciation of how characters speak, think and (rarely) behave. This is more of a meditative piece, and yet it's not lacking in adventure. If this is your first taste of Michael Chabon's fiction, I envy you. Now you will have to go and get more... more...

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Joe R. Lansdale

2009-09-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

"The October Country"
© 1990, original
--/ cool f story

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Joe R. Lansdale
"The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel"
© 2000, The Long Ones
Mad Dog Summer and Other Stories, 2004
--/ fourth place f novella
--/ wonder award
--/ adventure award
--/ shock value

"Dime Novel" it very well may be, but if it had appeared for sale some hundred years ago (unrated and unabridged), it could've caused a few fatalities among unprepared Victorian readers, through sheer shock and utter, disgusted disbelief. It is an entirely wicked novella, and is meant to be just that. I daresay it's even more offensive than Lansdale's "Zeppelins West" - but for all that hype and coarse sensationalism, it is a gorgeous example of no-holds-barred Wild West Steampunk Blockbuster. It is a blast, like many, many works of Joe R. Lansdale in his screwed-up version of the Wild West (think "cow-punk" plus a few "Saw" movies)

It is one heck of a ride, and it has everything a dime novel should have - mystery, wonder, adventure and crazed horror mixed with deeply dark atmosphere. You've been warned, but by all means, if you just watched, say, "Crank 2: High Voltage" and came out unaffected, then you'll see no problem with this novella either.

This sort of ferocious entertainment in literature reminds me of some wild and crazed Clark Ashton Smith stories in the 1930s "Weird Tales" pulp.

----------------------------------------------

Joe R. Lansdale
"Zeppelins West" (nv)
(Ned the Seal series #1)
© Subterranian Press, 2001
--/ third place cowpunk sf novel
--/ wonder award
--/ adventure award
--/ idea award: cowpunk
--/ humour award
--/ style award
--/ shock value
--/ rare find