THE DHARMA OF DRAGONS AND DAEMONS: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy

A veritable cottage industry now exists to examine Christian themes in popular culture. But what of the Buddhist themes? Loy and his wife, Goodhew, offer a brief but compelling foray into the dharma teachings of modern fantasy in YA literature and film. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, for example, may seem to be entirely un-Buddhist (it features a Christian-influenced resurrection and posits a profound dualism between good and evil), but its preference for non-violence, shown in the repeated sparing of Gollum's life, resonates with Buddhist principles. More importantly, Frodo's quest is one of renunciation; the story is fundamentally a lesson of nonattachment. Other chapters address Michael Ende's Momo, which the authors call "a Zen-like critique of our obsession with time"; two films of Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki; the Earthsea books of Ursula Le Guin; and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The authors concede that with the exception of Le Guin, none of the creators of these works ever explicitly refer to Buddhism, but the dharma connections are usually sound and fruitful. For best effect, readers will come to the book with some knowledge of Buddhism and of the works under discussion, which are not laid out in detail. (Nov.)