Parallel Botany - Avatar

I had the same feeling walking out of the theater after watching the James Cameron movie Avatar in 3-D as I had when seeing Star Wars when it first came out in 1977 - I wanted to fly. But what to do with the scenery made up of the plant life growing upon strange landscapes on Pandora - I wanted to be there. A complimentary book has been published that catalogs all of the flora and fauna and culture of this distant world: Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora, but is not that great - the movie is better than the book. Also, this is not a first-of-a-kind attempt to create a pseudo-authentic compendium of life.

Leo Lionni's Parallel Botany predates James Cameron's world by 32 years, and is just one year younger than George Lucas'. I read a new book review of Parallel Botany in Time Magazine while just starting graduate school, and then went to a local Walden Books in Fresno to order a copy. I am sure it wasn't more than ten dollars new at that time, but when the store called to say my book was in, I couldn't bring myself to go pick it up and put down that much cash for an impulsive purchase of what seemed like a frivolous purchase when serious text books were a greater priority. Ever since, I had always had it in my mind to get a copy some day, and that's what I did last year - ordered a used copy from a parallel seller on the Amazon Website. I was disappointed when it turned out to be a former library copy, but it was still the real deal (1).

What is unnerving about Parallel Botany, is that its narrative reads like a classical science text book as serious scientists would write in times gone by - but not any different than how serious scholars still speak at scientific conferences today, about things that may or may not be real. Unlike the feeling I had after watch Star Wars and Avatar, I didn't know what to think as I began to read the last chapter On Fairy Stories in Tolkien's Tales from the Perilous Realm - at first I couldn't tell whether the essay I was reading was a serious discussion about previous literature on the topic, or one made up as in Parallel Botany'esque style - or is serious literature about fairies just like those serious science texts - new and old? But even more strange are when elements of the parallel world are blended with those of the real - where the separation of the two worlds becomes less distinct - but pretty nice to look at, regardless.
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(1) I have had the same regret for not picking up a copy of Jefferson Starship's Blows Against the Empire album since I ordered it at the Montgomery Wards department store in my hometown when I was a freshman in college - there is a pattern here. My favorite song on the album is Have You Seen the Stars Tonight? which sounds like Pandora looks. My friend Ken, whom I had know since middle school, and I would trade albums regularly. I had his copy of the album when Ken died the summer before our senior year in high school. I returned the album to his family, and haven't had a copy of it since.