Sunday, December 20, 2009
The 1975 book Midworld, by Alan Dean Foster and the current movie AVATAR.
I had the pleasure of reading A.D. Fosters book Midworld when I was a soldier, stationed on Guam for 15 months. I remember longing for nothing as I paged through the grand megalithic descriptive language of the flora, fauna, peoples and levels which comprised survival on that distant orb. I recall the hostile intent of the would be despoilers of it's botanical secrets, their means and their ultimate fate. I recall the heroes, heroines antiheroes and shills. At once I knew that watching a movie of these components interact could never be as exhilarating as the images I could conjure up in my minds eye of this dangerous and wondrous place A.D. Foster had described so vividly in Midworld.
After seeing the movie Avatar, I was required to recall these rich impressions. Read the book, then see the movie. You may appreciate Mr. James Cameron's film work and achievement in the new film Avatar even more fully.
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13 comments:
I agree. Midworld is one my favorite books and I re-read it at least once a year. During my viewing of Avatar, I thought "this is just like Midworld". World mind, emfoil, corporate greed, very hostile world, drive out the human invaders, etc. However, in Midworld, the natives are a lost colony of humans that have been completely transformed by their environment in order to survive. In fact, they have no record of ever being human and believe that they are native to their world. Sky people are another reference to alien human invaders that seek to exploit the natural resources of the world. ADF has a fine knack of creating very believable alien worlds and his description of very strange flora and fauna are fantastic. Cameron chose to “borrow” from a great book.
I think "borrowed" is a loose term for Avatar. Definitely a great movie, but give credit where it is due. Home Tree? Six legged mounts that individuals emfoil? The scene where a seed of the soul tree is place in the grave of a native? I watched all the credits and have read some of the online stuff. Cameron should admit where the idea came from and give homage (as well as revenue) to one of the best scifi writers of all time.
I am sorry, but the correct term is "plagiarism". Apart from the concept of avatars and the romantic fluff, everything in the movie is lifted from Midworld. Oh, and the helicopter is called "Orca", not "Scorpio". I guess someone has been playing Command & Conquer a while ago (http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/ORCA_Assault_Craft).
Shame on you, Mr. Cameron.
Glad I'm not the only one, You all hit it on the head I just googled these comments up because its been bothering me, no credit for Alan Dean Foster? Surely no coincident.
Try Mid-Flinx by ADF if you hunger for more Midworld
Ditto to all comments above. Midworld as a source material is obvious. I also recall a short story I read years ago, written perhaps as far back as the 60's or even 50's, in which one of the gas giants in our solar system was being explored. Here they used the avatar concept and linked a human with one of the natives because of the pressure and atmosphere. I seem to recall the human having some physical limitation, (perhaps wheel chair bound ?) and his eventual identification with his new host. The jovian species were somewhat manta ray like (again as I recall). This ring a bell with anyone?
Smokey, the novella you are refering to is by Poul Anderson named "Call Me Joe" and was written @1957. I absolutely agree with everyone that Avatar is a rip off of both "Midworld" by A.D.F. and "Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson. Does Cameron not think that there are many of us Sci-Fi fans that have been reading since the 50's that would not immediately recognize these classic story lines! Take nothing away from the movie which brings these two stories together in a visually stunning movie...but let's give credit to two great writers.
I've seen a bunch of people commenting about "Call Me Joe" but not so many talking about Midworld. I was shocked when I saw the film, because so much seemed right out of Foster's book. I expect a lawsuit.
It's called "Ghost-writing" and Foster has been Cameron's ghost-writer since the Terminator days. I would imagine that Foster got his check for creating Cameron's world, but acknowledgment will come in about 10 years time.
Actually, I forgot that Foster wrote "Alien", too.
I commented after the movie to my wife that there were just to many similarities to a book I read in the 70's called MidWorld.
I'm glad to hear ADF is a ghost writer for Cameron. It seems unlikely he didn't get paid for this effort. I do remember seeing a clip of Cameron saying he wrote this himself however.
In a way, I wish some of the similarities were not so obvious. I think our chances of seeing Born running for his life from the Silversly have just evaporated.
The movie Avatar was wonderfully entertaining. I intend to see it again but this time on a normal screen.
ADF as ghost writer...that would explain much; alas no Silverslith on the horizon.
David
After reading an interview with Cameron, i think you will find that he and ADF do not have any professional links, and you will also find that ADF did not write Alien, he wrote the novelisation of the film, very different. He has done this with several major SF films. ADF is well aware of the similarities between Avatar and Midworld, but he will only say that many other people have noted the same.
i wish Avatar were more like Midworld. the silverslith, the Dunawatt flower, the photon floaters ... heck, i can't remember all the horrors ADF created. i need to read it again.
Avatar also resembles Lawrence of Arabia, if i may say. the actual story, that is; not the film. although that was a David Lean sweeping epic, similar to Avatar's aspirations.
A.E. Van Vogt wrote Black Destroyer, which was the inspiration for Alien.
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