--- Ong Yong Peng <yongpeng.ong@...> skrev:

> I wonder if
> authors like C.S.Lewis and Tolkien were in any way
> directly influenced
> by the Jataka Tales or inspired by Arabic sources,
> especially the
> Arabic Nights which was in turned influenced by
> Indian (Hindu and
> Buddhist) sources.

Certainly they had read at least the Arabian Nights;
most Western story-lovers have.

However, Lewis and Tolkien - although personal
friends, and although both were pious Christians
(Tolkien Catholic and Lewis Protestant) - are not at
all similar as writers. Lewis was, as you say,
"Christian apologetical"; Tolkien was Christian, but
not apologetical, at least not in his story-telling
(and he didn't like the Narnia stories at all). Lewis'
stories are allegorical, Tolkien hated allegories; and
although he was careful that his stories shouldn't
contain anything not compatible with Catholic dogma,
you can read his stories without noticing his religion
(if you don't happen to know it).

For Lewis, on the other hand, fiction was essentially
a pretext for preaching - so he was, in that respect,
actually closer to the spirit of the "Pagan" Jatakas
(although he couldn't, of course, talk about former
lives of Christ; periodical rebirth was taboo to his
dogmas).

And he was rather provincial as well. In "Out of the
Silent Planet" he says at one place that the
temperature was similar to a day on Earth in
September; he didn't think of the fact that the
temperature on Earth in September may be slightly
different in Congo and Antarctica...

And in "That Hideous Strenght" he says that in this
age, you must be either Pagan or Christian, in the
same way that anyone who is too dainty to eat with his
fingers must use a fork. When I made the Swedish
translation of that book (I needed the money), I
wanted to insert a short translator's comment that
"one third of mankind makes use of chopsticks", but
the publisher didn't allow me to do so.

And, ironically enough, Lewis had a very low opinion
of Disney - who has made the present film...

Also ironically enough - it was actually Tolkien who
managed to convert the previously stout Atheist Lewis
to Christianity; but he wanted to make him a Catholic,
and the only result was yet another Ulster Protestant
- a category _not_ popular among Catholics.

Gunnar