Avatar a typical planetary romance?

[redpaintednavi]

An article in Wikipedia lists Avatar among films typical for the genre planetary romance which is a genre that also includes stories like Dune and John Carter on Mars. What do you say, is Avatar a typical Planetary romance?

Planetary romance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Human No More]

Doesn't sound like it to me. Based on that description, you could say the majority of Star Trek episodes are, for example, but I had always heard it defined more narrowly before. Romance is also only a single plot of Avatar; one of many.

Edit: The page also describes the planets as hostile. Ah... no ¬_¬

[redpaintednavi]

Yes, it seems to be a bit hard to define what is Planetary Romance and what is Space Opera or other adventorous Sci Fi.

About hostility, Pandora is somewhat hostile to sky people, especially if they try to go around unprotected.

[Isard]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Doesn't sound like it to me. Based on that description, you could say the majority of Star Trek episodes are, for example, but I had always heard it defined more narrowly before. Romance is also only a single plot of Avatar; one of many.

Edit: The page also describes the planets as hostile. Ah... no ¬_¬

Pandora is like space Australia, everything has fangs and wants to eat you. I would call that hostile.

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by Wikipedia, describing the genre

...the bold adventurer becomes a space traveler, often from Earth, which itself stands in for modern Europe and North America (understood as centers of technology and colonialism). Other planets [...] replace Asia and Africa as exotic locales; while hostile tribes of aliens and their decadent monarchies substitute for Western stereotypes of "savage races" and "oriental despotisms".

That sounds like a pretty good description of Avatar's setting to me.

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Isard

Pandora is like space Australia, everything has fangs and wants to eat you. I would call that hostile.

Hah! Great stuff.

I think it could fall into that category, but saying "it's just in this one category" is silly. It didn't even become a romance film until a good ways into the movie.

[Moco Loco]

It is possible for a movie to be in more than one category, you guys. It doesn't have to be that it either is entirely "planetary romance" (which is a category I'd never heard before now) or is not at all. I think it fits as well as any of those other examples.

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by Raiden

Hah! Great stuff.

I think it could fall into that category, but saying "it's just in this one category" is silly. It didn't even become a romance film until a good ways into the movie.

Just FYI, AFAIK "romance" here means related to Romanticism, i.e. the opposite of Rationalism, rather than a love story.

[Human No More]

That doesn't fit either. Surely the opposite of rationalism would be a world driven by magic and as such, a fantasy environment rather than scifi?

[Clarke]

Except Rationalism/Romanticism are general philosophies, and aren't really connected to literature at all. The important bit is that Romanticism is all about emotional reactions and going with the flow, in contrast with Rationalist analysis and reduction of everything.

(They're both outlooks on the real world, so magic isn't an option. )

[Human No More]

Interesting, use a completely different definition of rationalist to the one understood by... well... everyone - but I still don't think that fully applies because yes, it's an emotional plot, but there is an extreme level of care put into making things realistic, and there's no "it works because it does" / "magic lol" - everything is either documented in background, or self-evident. Seems like a level of both to me - as I understand this romantic/rationalist definition, one that's purely romantic would be more sitcom than scifi.

[Clarke]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Interesting, use a completely different definition of rationalist to the one understood by... well... everyone - but I still don't think that fully applies because yes, it's an emotional plot, but there is an extreme level of care put into making things realistic, and there's no "it works because it does" / "magic lol" - everything is either documented in background, or self-evident. Seems like a level of both to me - as I understand this romantic/rationalist definition, one that's purely romantic would be more sitcom than scifi.

Yeah, the difference between romanticism and Enligtenment-style rationalism (there's a difference between the literary philosophy of Rationalism and the scientific principles) is basically literary tone. You can play hard and scientific sci-fi as Romantic, as Avatar did, but you can also play very soft setting as Rationalist, such as Star Trek. (Since most of an average Star Trek plot doesn't revolve around characters' emotions as much as solving the mystery/problem of the week.)

(Also, wait, what? No, "works because it does?" The explanation for the flying mountains is an obvious handwave - which is pretty appropriate, since the only real thing you can suspend them on is the audience's willing belief.)