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@ApostateEnglishman @Edent On reflection Jake Sully could be seen as a White Saviour in the Avatar films except that he's no longer white, he's "gone native", and the Na'vi saved him more than him saving them.
White Saviour Reversed if he was a Tarot card, maybe?
The Na'vi say that every person is born twice. The second time is when you earn your place among the people, forever. 😉
@ApostateEnglishman @Edent Having seen Avatar films 1 and 2 but not yet 3, I disagree on labelling them as colonialist, White Saviour narrative.
The invaders from Earth are definitely shown as villains, and the indigenous blue or green people of the land and water of Pandora as its protectors.
@ApostateEnglishman @Edent Many indigenous people have sophisticated understandings of their world and manage natural resources without destroying worlds.
@Edent Like many imperial space operas the time setting relies on technology to colonise planetary systems beyond those we currently have.
As political constructs though I'm reminded of the Spanish colonisation of parts of America as well as English colonisation of many other nations. Colonisation and exploitation of indigenous resources isn't kind whether we see it in Dune or the Avatar setting of Pandora or in West Papua and Papua New Guinea. Or Middle Eastern nations like Palestine. Or ...
@Edent Lucy Cooke also covers menopause but in less detail in her interesting and entertaining book "Bitch: On the Female of the Species". The book is about animals not humans (mostly) but has lots of interesting insights.
For example, menopause, to which author Cooke devoted an entire chapter. Did you know only five mammal species are known to exhibit this -- humans and four species of whales that hunt in packs? Lucy has a theory why this pattern was favoured by evolution but even if it's wrong, it's still interesting.
I gave the book 5 stars.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59228221-bitch
@essjax @Phil_Tanner @Edent @nifta @va2lam @summerbeth Real people in a bar anyway, if that counts as "real world"!
@Edent @nifta @Phil_Tanner @va2lam @summerbeth Lovely to meet with you all and hear about people's travels and interests. 🤗
I mentioned my phone - a Unihertz Titan from a small Shanghai start up and its great accessibility features. 📲
https://www.unihertz.com/collections/titan-series
I also mentioned UK writer Jen Campbell to Terry and Liz. Here's one of her poems from a short but powerful book "Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit".
The poem Alopecia is probably inspired by Jen's own experiences of medical side effects.
https://www.jen-campbell.co.uk/sample-poems.html
@Edent I'm in Wellington aka Te Whanganui A Tara in indigenous language, Te Reo Māori. I enjoy meetups with folk with overlapping interests. When will you be visiting?
FWIW I used to help with hackathons using open data sets and lots of other tech events.
I also met my partner at a science fiction convention years ago and we're both keen readers.
Wellington used to be livelier in tech sector before Covid and subsequently a change of government in 2023. Here's a flavour from @miramarmike
https://blog.mikeriversdale.co.nz/2025/12/which-wellytech-xmas-were-you-at.html
Cheers, Kay 🍻