Harrison’s Deathworld and Cameron’s Avatar
01. Oct, 2009 
31 Comments
Several folks who pop up in my Google Reader feed have today mentioned that there’s some updates at the website for James Cameron’s 3D Sci-Fi* extravaganza Avatar.
I took a look around and the first thing that popped into my head was “this is Harry Harrison’s Deathworld!”.
Of course it is way too early to be able to judge the stories side by side, and very little real information about the film’s storyline has been released (I’ve looked), but here is what I do know:
Harrison’s “death world” is a planet called Pyrrus. It is a mining colony. The colonists are under constant and deadly assault by all of the planet’s indigenous life forms. Their sole remaining base is an enclosure surrounded by a wall/fence, with observation towers spaced along it regularly. The landing pad for spaceships is contained within this perimeter. Only the really, really fast and smart survive there. Introduced into the colony is our hero Jason Dinalt, a thief and smuggler, who is recruited to help the Pyrrans obtain advanced weaponry which will help them in their struggle. It is only when the non-Pyrran (Jason) is introduced into the colony and brings his non-Pyrran experiences to bear on the colony’s plight that we learn the true nature of the colonist’s problems and find a solution to their dilemma.
Avatar, from the site: the planet’s name is Pandora. It is a mining colony. All of the indigenous life is deadly and trying to kill the colonists. The base perimeter fence has towers spaced regularly along it and the base encloses the landing field…
Cameron has, in the past, had to give up some story telling credit to the original sources (Terminator, drawn from Ellison’s Soldier and another Outer Limits episode I just can’t remember the title of right now). Way too early to tell how close this thing is to Deathworld, but I’m going to be keeping a close eye on it.
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I think the name of the “Outer Limits” episode is “Demon With a Glass Hand”…
Well, now. Deathworld is a favorite, has been since I read it in Astounding/Analog. Good premise, good writing. The two follow-up novels were not quite as good, but still very enjoyable.
If Cameron has used it for “inspiration”, he should acknowledge the fact. If he’s flat stolen, Harrison should go after him with guns blazing. I don’t believe in coincidence in these things.
I must say the trailer doesn’t have the look of Harrison’s book, but then it’s the PREMISE that may be at issue. None of which will keep me seeing this one…
Crotchety — I like your analysis. While it’s probably got nothing to do with Avatar, thought I’d also kick into the conversation that there was a Christopher Anvil novel named Pandora’s Planet in which the spacefaring conquerors had the most awful problems subduing the dominant native lifeform — humans.
Hope this helps.
Regardless, a Deathworld film trilogy has been on my (and many of my friend’s) wish list since, oh, around 1980 or so when I first read the books. After seeing Jurassic Park, I said, “Now they can do Lord of the Rings!” and six seconds later added, “Now they can do Deathworld!”.
That said, the trailer looks fantastic.
Regards,
Brian “Hate you Ch’Aka!” Hurrel
My first thought was Poul Anderson’s “Call Me Joe,” but I haven’t read Harrison’s books. Sounds like a plagiarism double-header.
Does any one recall a short story before any novels…
when i saw the Avatar previews, i immediately recalled a short story by ?author Harrison, re humans that are projected into life forms on a Jovian moon–seems they were dog like creatures…
in the short story, the human elects to remain in the alien body and runs off …..my memory is hazy
actually just read Steven Hart’s comment, and yes, the story i recall may have been Poul Anderson’s !!
in any case, agree it is similar to Cameron’s concept
actually now have found that the story i remember is
Desertion by Clifford Simak from 1944!! (before i was born but must have read it in a collection 40 years ago)
the creatures on Jupiter were Lopers…
so the idea has rattled around for quite a while…so seems that Cameron should credit someone?
Now that I’ve seen enough about the story, setting, and visuals, I think it’s safe to say that Cameron doesn’t have to acknowledge anyone in particular as a source for this movie. Most of these concepts have been kicking around science fiction stories for decades, and a list of possible inspirations would include hundreds of titles. It’s rather pointless to point to any single author or story as inspiration.
Brian,
I’m going to see it tomorrow with Call Me Joe, Deathworld, Graywater Station and several other stories in hand.
Here’s my take: Cameron is very familiar with the genre. He has been gigged in the past on a couple of occasions for ‘borrowing’ (most notably Ellison).
The concepts seen so far in both clips and descriptions are strong enough that a significant percentage of readers who are also familiar with the genre have independently raised the question.
Cameron may not have borrowed, he may have done so unconsciously, or he may have done so deliberately – and there very well may be a scene or a piece of dialogue that appears in the film that turns out to be a smoking gun.
For sure we won’t catch James admitting his borrowing ways this time around, he’s at least learned that lesson and knows that somewhere, some geek will be watching him.
You are right that many of the concepts have been knocking around for a while – but if the movie includes concept & plot elements, it’s gone too far.
It would be nice if folks could acknowledge their “inspirations” without leaving themselves open to law suits – we might see more credit being given to our favorite writers, many of whom DID originate various SF tropes, big ideas and visions.
Didn’t notice anything to bring a law suit about but saw borrowings
from:
(1) Harry Harrison’s DeathWorld series.
(2) Poul Anderson’s Call Me Joe
(3) Fred Pohl’s Man Plus
(4) Algis Budrys’s Rogue Moon
(5) Larry Nivin’s Integral Trees
Cameron does seem knowledgeable of modern SF prose, wonder why, with his money!, he doe not do an adaptation of some classic SF prose?
Crotchety Old Fan,
Still haven’t seen the film, but have seen alot of references to some old stories, particularly “Call Me Joe”. Definite similarities there. It’s probably safe to say that Cameron is drawing inspiration from a lot of the classic SF from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. This is also the SF that I grew up with and am most familiar with, so it’s actually nice to see this sort of thing on film. I don’t really see a problem with borrowing concepts and ideas or even futuristic technology (mechs, powered armor, etc) from other sources, since I think most writers do it all the time. Borrowing detailed plot structures or prose, of course, is another thing entirely.
As Al says, though, why not just do a classic adapation? As I mentioned before, I’d love to see a Deathworld film… or trilogy. Piper’s “Little Fuzzy” would be a great film, though the title might have to be changed. An oral report I did in high school on that book barely got past the laughter at the title.
How about Anderson’s “Flandry” series as a TV show?
You guys might want to check out this:
http://www.mistsandvapors.com/?p=65
Brian,
welcome and thanks for writing.
I think the main reason why these Hollywood types don’t simply do adaptations is two parts of the same issue. I generally refer to it as the “wolf theory”: you don’t own anything until you piss on it.
By doing an adaptation, the director/screenwriter/etc., risks – pissing off die hards, appearing as if they aren’t creative enough, have to deal with the ‘a novel is too long to make into a feature film’ problem and
they risk their big ‘creator’ paychecks. Any agent worth their salt would make sure that the adaptee get’s some piece of the toys, shirts, blah blah blah and the money folks in Hollywood might start getting the idea that they don’t need to pay big bucks to ‘name’ producer/directors – they might be able to get by with a no-name, a decent screenwriter and a popular novel.
With all of that said – there are TONS of stories already out there that would make great films IF the folks doing the translation were to somehow understand what makes the story work, something they seem to have failed miserably at (most of the time) since just about the beginning of film. For visual breadth and scope, you can’t possibly beat Ringworld; the entire Heinlein canon is waiting to be mined (time enough for love would really make some heads turn), I personally think that Chandler’s Grimes stories would make a great – graphic novel, animated series, tv series, comic book and there are a few of his novels from that series that would make good stand-along films. Back to scope – Farmer’s Riverworld; Gateway by Pohl, etc., etc.
A lot of these properties have been optioned numerous times (making nice bonus money for the authors – maybe that’s the real answer: they’d rather have someone re-option every few years or so than have it actually made into a flick, lol)
One thing I know for sure: the day of the faithful transmigration is approaching. It won’t be a Hollywood blockbuster with half a billion budget – it will be some trufan, working on their favorite story with all of the new tech that has become available. It won’t be in the theaters, but streamed and once one of them is handled properly (permissions, rights, etc) it will open the floodgates. (Hollywood money types will be happy to fund multiple, multiple hundred thousand dollar projects for the same attention/return they currently get from a single blockbuster).
Just saw Avatar this afternoon. The basic storyline is pure ‘Pochahontas’ from Disney. But I came out of it and immediately remembered ‘Deathworld’, which I read 35 years ago. I couldn’t even rememeber the name or the author of the novel, but the core idea was so similar that I had to google ‘Junkmen’ to see who else had noticed the similarity. That’s how I got the link to this site.
I agree with you about ‘Ringworld’. What a movie that would make! Think how it would look with the totally incredible technology Cameron has developed for ‘Avatar’.
endersgame29, you may also have read the same story embedded as a chapter of Clifford D. Simak’s novel titled “City”. I also thought of that storyline when I heard about Avatar.
I read the first two Deathworld novels last year and really enjoyed them and am in the process of reading the 3rd one now. Like Brian I would love to see this in movie form, if done right. I noticed in your Avatar review that you mentioned noticing several SF references and am assuming that some of those are references to the stories you went into the film armed with. Do you think that added to or took away from your enjoyment of the film, or did it make any difference whatsoever?
Carl,
I ended up not taking any of the stories with me. Attending the movie ended up being a family outing instead of blog research.
As I mentioned in the review, there are so many different and iconic concepts woven into the film that you could pretty much pick anything off the shelf and say ‘aha!’.
What I will do in future when Avatar becomes available online or on DVD is closely examine the dialogue and particular scenes that ring a bell. I’ve not yet checked to see if the shooting script is available, but that will also be examined.
I don’t think anyone is going to be able to pin a particular story on this one – like I said, Cameron seems to have learned his lesson. And also like I said, the only thing that really tees me off about this kind of thing is that it robs the audience of the opportunity to see the “roots” acknowledged as possible prelude to looking them up and getting involved with the genre.
Maybe someone should put together a blog entry along the lines of An Avatar Reading List. (If you enjoyed this film, why not check out some of the works of fiction that it is so obviously based on?)
And I’m glad to see that you are doing just that! I don’t mind at all that stories are influenced by other stories. I largely suspect the old adage ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ as being mostly correct when it comes to books and films. That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything “new” as much as it means that if one digs far enough a previous work with some similarities can probably be found for anything. However, when it is really obvious that there are influences I too like them to be acknowledged. One, because I think it honors the efforts of those who went before, but also because, when I like something, I like to go back and read the works that inspired it.
Off to read your other post.
I really like the idea of an “Avatar Reading List”.
Just saw Avatar today, and Deathworld was the first thing that came to mind. I read it over 20 years ago and don’t even remember how it ends, just the concept that the hostile creatures on the planet were aggressively lethal purely out of self defense. I haven’t read the other novels cited in this thread, but The Matrix was the second thing that came to mind. Anyway, I googled Avatar + Deathworld and found your site. I guess I’m not the only one who noticed the similarity.
After seeing Avatar I’ve started searching, having forgot the name of the novel, and your article helped. Indeed, Deathworld by Harry Harrison was the first thing that came to mind after watching Avatar – the concept is indeed quite similar, as noticed by several people before me here.
Like William I just googled the words deathworld and Avatar and got here. I saw the movie yesterday and loved it, but the first thing I thought of was “This is Deathworld!” Good catch.
I do not know Deathworld but I see the following elements of the Avatar story:
The story of an “avatar” on a hostile planet is a SF staplet heme.
Larry Niven’s The integral trees is a definite input.
The lifelong “rapport” with the flying creatures is definitely Anne McCaffrey Dragon series
I really think that themes such as this are “free for all” and not plagiary
Carl,
There’s free for all and then there’s free for all. How would you characterize a soldier from the future being transported back into our time and defending contemporaries here? How about a soldier traveling back in time to prevent a future conflict?
Pretty standard stuff – until the person borrowing mentions the specific story they “borrowed” from.
I agree with you that many of these things are common themes and I also know that there are plenty of other examples of shameless borrowing that will go unanswered (Star Wars?) but I do find it highly significant that several people have arrived here independently after searching for ‘avatar’ and ‘deathworld’ – all apparently struck by the similarities and sufficiently moved to see if anyone else has seen what they’ve seen.
In reality (if we ever got into Cameron’s head that deep) I strongly suspect that he had two stories in mind for his blender: deathworld (an entire planet’s life interconnected and working against the human colonists) and Call Me Joe; you can’t say call me joe alone because ‘Joe’ lives in harmony with his (new found) world. Deathworld introduces the ‘mindless corporation’ and military aspects to the tale.
Maybe James will make a confession some day. Until then, all we have is speculation.
Very interesting discussion about Cameron´s “Avatar: Pandora”! Saw the movie twice already and a third time will come, for sure. A most impressive movie on many levels, including “9/11″
Born in 1940, I´ve been an SF-Fan ever since I read my first novel of that kind when I was eight, a German “zukunftsroman” with the title “Auf unbekanntem Stern” (“Unknown Planet” or so). About 1958 I read “Pandora´s Planet” by Christopher Anvil in ASF (1956 Sep) and liked it very much. As I remember it, “Pandora” was in that story our planet Earth – and it were the aliens that opened that “Box of Pandora” (= us, mankind), when they invaded Earth.The sort of planet, that Cameron shows us in his movie with fantastic details, remembered me, just like other commentators in this blog, of Harrisons “Death World”.
Now as to “plagiarism”: When I first saw the first “Star Wars” movie in 1978, my first thought was: Now that is Edmond Hamiltons “Star Kings” come alive (which I had read in 1953 or so in the German version). But it never came to my mind, that George Lucas might have “stolen” Hamilton´s Ideas and “pictures”!
Of course Lucas – and Cameron as well – are full of their own SF adventures in book form from their early reading years and this shows in their work, in the movies. But they are no “thieves”. I think it was Sigmund Freud (or someelse in his time) who coined the scientific terminus “cryptomnesia” – which means: Someone reads a book (or sees a movie) – and many years later has an idea of his own that is very alike the ideas of years ago – without knowing what the true source is.
A personal example: I must have been 13 or so, when I read Clifford Simaks “Desertion” (mentioned in other comments). When I was 21, I wrote a story of my own (“Blindness”). I was very perplexed, when a reader wrote me, that I had stolen Simaks idea of the transformation of a human personality into an alien on a strange planet (do you hear the bells of “Avatar Pandora” ringing?)
Of course had Simak´s beautiful and stimulating story impressed me (the more being a youth of just 13) – but I swear that when I wrote my own story I had no memory at all of “Desertion” in mind! This is: not consciously – but, of course, there sure was an unconscious link!
Culture is a manyfolded web of ideas and pictures and songs and the ever-present pattern of the “hero´s quest” ties them all together. If we would start to forbid using that gigantic, thousands of years old treasure chest – culture would simply collapse. And of course, every tale has been told in the bible. Or was it in the “Gilgamesch epos”?
Best wishes from Germany – Juergen vom Scheidt
I missed one thing in all the comments I have read so far: Would somebody please say that Avatar is a great movie! I think it has all the ingredients of good Science Fiction, including the „Sense of Wonder“ that I first felt when reading my first SF in the Fifties. Combining a number of typical SF tropes with a good romantic story (Pocahontas) and innovative use of technology that will make movie history certainly deserves praise and not too much – pardon me – nitpicking.
I love SF, it changed my outlook on life when I was young (I am German and was born in 1936, i.e. In Nazi Germany). SF was my incentive for learning English (school helped, but that came later, Superman and Tom Corbett were first) and it helped me earn part of my livelihood (I have translated into German about 250 SF novels, from Asimov through Zelazny).
I suppose that qualifies me to add my five cents worth to this discussion.
To me Avatar is real SF – and to a much higher degree that some of the thinly disguised fairy tales or soaps screened as SF, and certainly more entertaining than Vampires or other Horror Fantasy stuff, so kudos to the man who did it, and did it with panache.
Let me repeat what some other contributors said: there are 10,000 SF tropes out there, that all writers (and moviemakers) use, the only difference to mainstream literature and moviemaking is that the SF Universe has not been defined by history but is a fluid one….or is someone plagiarizing by using hyperspace or wormholes (just to name two out of a hundred methods of traveling) in his or her story? Or do you call it stealing, if somebody writes up – for the umpteenth time – what happened at the OK corral?
So, please enjoy more and be less critical, SF is supposed to be fun.
Best wishes from Munich
Heinz Zwack
PS I am missing one story in the list of plagiarized properties. Mindworld, by Alan Dean Foster, which i translated around 1975. Google it Just to give you a hint, the German title was The Thinking Trees.
Welcome.
Hans, you said it’s missing – but now you’ve said it.
Midworld (Mindworld/Thinking Trees) was added by someone in the comments.
Hi all,
Finally saw Avatar. Story, pretty good. Visuals, in-f***ing-credible.
Still disagree with COF on the whole borrowing thing.
Totally agree with COF on fact that movies tend to not add to our favorite literary genre.
Fervently hope that the film will enable us old hands to guide some newbies to the wealth of literature that made Avatar possible.