#110: The Last Airbender
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Werty: I just wanted to talk briefly about Avatar: The Last Airbender - a fantastic animated series from 15 years ago that is now seeing a renaissance of sorts after being listed on Netflix in the middle of COVID-19.
It may ‘just’ look like a kid’s cartoon, but it has truly beautiful art, top-notch world-building, actual character development, cultural representation and an incredible amount of emotional maturity and political nuance. It wrestles with issues like imperialism, war, genocide, oppression, justice, morality, environmentalism, history, sexism, revenge, family, redemption…
Needless to say, I watched it again once it appeared on Netflix. And wow, it has aged like a fine wine, hashtag chef’s kiss. Watching it as an older, more cynical person, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the show still holds up incredibly well. In fact, much like how fermentation produces new and more complex flavours in foods, Avatar has acquired tasting notes that are a little more bitter and unpleasant, yet are acquired tastes that we learn to pick up as adults. I found myself identifying more with the adults in the show, who had complex motivations beyond siding with good or evil.
They opted to make peace with co-existing in the flawed societies and institutions in the show, whether by choice, out of fear, wilful ignorance, or a combination of them. They tried to stand up for what they thought was right in their own small way, recognising that it was not easy to change things without affecting the web of ties and relations that bound them to their societies, unlike what a ragtag band of youngsters from a faraway land had the freedom to do.
I also want to touch on the eclectic fusion of Asian art and culture that the show presents. Names, places, fighting styles, music, architecture, fashion, history - all of these drew inspiration from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and more. And through its visual language and setting, the show managed to articulate a vision of a world filled with Asian folks and their histories and cultures. Not to be exoticised or looked down upon by a central white gaze… just existing, casually. How radical is that?
Don’t even get me started on its sequel, The Legend of Korra, which will be released on Netflix some time this month. The art and animation is even better. A strong, brown-skinned female protagonist who goes through a compelling hero’s journey. It has what I think are the among the greatest villains in all of fiction. A historic milestone for LGBTQ representation on television.
My point is, watch Avatar! Even if you think you’re too old and world-weary for it. In fact, especially if you think you’re too old and world-weary. This show might still have a couple of things to teach you.
But let’s never talk about that live-action movie.
To Do
Visting Disney World during Covid-19
The visitors reciprocate with a docility that would be the envy of any authoritarian regime. When offered a MagicBand, I gladly submitted to tagging and monitoring—an encroachment on my privacy I would never permit to the federal government of the United States. Indeed, I hoped Disney would track me more closely, so it could tell me if a guest who had been in line near me reported coming down with COVID-19.
This may be the first time in history that a writer compared Disneyland to Singapore, not the other way round. #singaporewithoutthedeathpenalty
How prosperity transformed the Falklands
Some islanders complained that, with so many people from all over the world, the Falklands were becoming unrecognizable. Others found the new cosmopolitanism exciting, and thought that those who complained were lacking in vision and probably racist, harkening back to the days before the war, when islanders used to cite the nearly hundred-per-cent whiteness of the population as proof that they were truly British.
This elderly Taiwanese couple models with clothes left behind at their laundry shop
Could a "I made a mistake" button improve Twitter?
One obvious issue is that people are wrong about a lot of things, but struggle to admit their mistakes. This is why many cultures have created elaborate norms around face-saving. Unfortunately, social media largely lacks these cultural norms, and even makes the problem worse.
The story of opium and colonialism is more complicated than you think
European empires were addicted to opium smoking. Then their own agents launched a moral crusade to prohibit it.
Brussels is using mystery shoppers to catch discriminatory real estate agents
Starting September 1, the city’s Regional Housing Inspectorate is having public employees pose as prospective tenants, seeking evidence of landlords and home-sellers who unfairly bar new tenants on grounds of, among other factors, their race, physical ability, or sexuality.
A new study on the long-term impact of abortions, or lack thereof, on womens' lives
When people assess what will happen in their lives if they have to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, they are quite often proven right. That might seem like an obvious point, but much of contemporary anti-abortion legislation is predicated on the idea that competent adults can’t really know what’s at stake in deciding whether to bear a child or not.
Perhaps the most radical and groundbreaking aspect of this study is that it listened to women.
Reflections on watching Singapore in Westworld
The city-state of my birth was rearranged on screen; its locations subtly adjusted to represent something else with a disorienting dream logic. As I watched this alchemy, I knew my vision was doubled. I saw the sleek fiction of a glossy, dystopian world with its flawless android skin and futuristic architecture and vehicles. Simultaneously I was immersed in a synesthetic memory of warm tropical nights in the ever-changing city-state. I struggle to describe it to those who have never visited.
What it’s like to be an actor in the final hour before the play begins
Pi pa gao spotted!
The new must-have museum souvenir: face masks
White supremacy was her world. And then she left.
People don’t leave the hate movement because a veil lifts and they are suddenly able to see hate for what it is. The truth is more disappointing. They leave because it makes sense for them, because the value hate once gave them has diminished or evaporated.
How did the Karen archetype become a thing?
The Karen, a white woman who surveys, inconveniences, and terrorizes service workers and people of color, is a relatively new term in the culture, but her character type has been with us for centuries.
Every Tokyo subway stop has its own jingle, all written by one man
Shooting an action scene in The Old Guard
Understanding Cordoba Cathedral
Dispatches from the Tweetfront
That’s all! See you next week!
Werty & Yuni