Summary: The film Avatar had explicit religious themes in terms of the story of a saviour, destiny, and of mystical communion with an intelligent creator being. It also contained a clear message concerning the value of respect for the environment, and the evils of greed and the exploitation of indigenous peoples. Fans interpreting this story, however, do not always hold on to the distinction between reality and fiction. Many fall into what literary theorists would call a category error. This includes not only asking questions of 'fact' about the narrative, but relating to the mystical elements of the environmentalism as fact. This paper explores the interpretative frameworks fans use to engage with narrative and fiction, and concludes that the suspension of disbelief is not a consistent frame of their aesthetic experience.
