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I've known since about a month ago that James Cameron "ripped off" some sci-fi novella from the fifties or something. I never brought it up because I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter when someone rips off something else. Le déjeuner sur l'herbe by Manet (a painting largely accredited for removing realism and impressionism from exclusivity) was just a "rip off" of Raphael's Judgement of Paris. The dance scene between Uma Thurman and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction is just a "rip off" of the Madison Scene in Jean-Luc Godard's Bande a Part. The Dementors in Harry Potter are just a "rip off" of the Nazgul Wraiths from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The Matrix itself was ripped off of the ideas of more than just a handfull of philosophers (i.e. Plato, Descartes, Zhuangzi, Dennett, etc.) These are all very, very obvious rip offs --- yet, no one criticizes any of these artists for this.

The basic truth is that, as a thinking society, we have been around for a god damn long time. As a result of this, a lot of thinking has been done. If you have a thought that someone else has not had yet, either your name is Stephen Hawking, you're under the employee of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, or you're mistaken and need to admit to yourself that someone has probably had this idea. If you doubt me, watch the Simpsons (look at that; I just made a Southpark "rip-off").

Avatar looks fucking cool. I'm going to go to see this movie, because it looks awesome, and James Cameron is giving people realistic motion sickness with 3D glasses, and until you can do that, I suggest you leave me alone, with your dumb sci-fi novellas.