The geniality of the love story

[redpaintednavi]

Just read something on Camerons fan site about how the love story in Avatar is not only an ordinary love story but also a smart move to close the gap between Jake and the Navi culture:

The love story was a secondary story that among other things helps illustrate Jake's increasing understanding and appreciation of the Na'vi. It helps establish that there's no such thing as a barrier between "us" and "them". There were other elements in the story meant to achieve that, but the love story makes it that much more personal.

And it is also something one can relate to here on Earth too. How much easier is it not to understand and above all emotionally come more close to another culture if you fall in love with one of its members and establish a relation with that person. I know several people that have come very close to cultures and peoples they would never even have noticed if they had not met someone from there and fallen in love.

Avatar Return of Great Storytelling

It also reminds me of a book by anthropologist Kenneth Good about how he found love among the Yanomami people in Venezuela and how that changed him and his understanding about that people. One can read about it in his book Into the Hearth.

Anthropologist Kenneth Good went to the rain forests of the Amazon to study the Yanomami. He found more than one of the few remaining peoples untouched by modern "civilization." During more than a decade of observation, Good found himself accepted, indeed virtually adopted, by the tribe and eventually fell in love with a young Yanomami woman. In the process, he made exciting new discoveries about the tribal people and about himself. Into the Heart is the fascinating story of his journey of discovery.

Amazon.com: Into The Heart: One Man's Pursuit of Love and Knowledge Among the Yanomami (9780673982322): Kenneth Good, David Chanoff: Books