Inspirations

I wonder if how many truly original creations we see these days. I wonder where creative people get their inspiration? I wonder if there is a new breed of moderately talented but commercially astute artists, that has taken over in most spheres of life and what they do is pick up masterpieces from some time ago, that are no longer active in the public mind and then use all the modern devices at their disposal to churn out a creation that is spectacular, mind-boggling and yet somehow familiar and thereby manage to produce some fantastic blockbusters.



Let me try and explain with a couple of examples. Most music I hear these days, have a ring of familarity to it and therefore there will be too many to be able to single out. So I'll pick recent blockbusters from the world of books and the netherworld of movies.



Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings:

The evil villian: Sauron is the head of evil. He lost his power, and needs the ring to gain it all back. Voldemort is also a vanquished evil wizard and is looking at different ways to gain his strength back
The unlikely hero: Frodo Baggins is a Hobbit, a peaceful, almost childish and from a weak race. He is entrusted with the task of saving the world from great evil. Harry is an 11 year orphan who does much the same.

A birthday sets off events: Harry's 11th vs. Frodo's 33rd and Bilbo's 111th

Inherited invisibility device: Harry's Cloak vs. Frodo's Ring (although the Ring takes you to a different 'world')
Dogs named Fang: Owned by Hagrid in HP and owned by Farmer Maggot in LOTR
Evil, creepy hooded creatures: Dementors vs. the Nazgul
Deceased parents: Harry's parents were murdered. Frodo's parents drowned
Taken to live with uncle: Harry lives with his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Frodo lives with his Uncle Bilbo
Special Object/s: The One Ring is the object that the hero must prevent the villian from getting, so as to regain his full powers. The Sorcerer's Stone and the Horcruxes are the same.
Mentor/Protector: Gandalf is a guiding, helping, mentoring, teaching figure for Frodo. Professor Dumbledore is the same for Harry Potter.
Magical Creatures: Both stories have Trolls, giant spiders, dragons, giant birds, goblins
Sidekick "Creature": Gollum and Dobby.

Basin of seeing: Pensieve vs. Galadriel's Mirror

Scar from Evil forces: Harry's scar on forehead. Frodo's scar from the Morgul Blade.

and finally -

He who must not be named: Voldemort is supposed to inspire so much fear that magical folk do not even like to speak his name out loud. Instead, they refer to him as He Who Must Not Be Named. In LOTR, instead of calling Sauron by his name, Faramir calls him The Unnamed, The Nameless and most interestingly, He whom we do not name.



In fact, I've also read an article on the internet claiming that LOTR was not completely original when written as Tolkien used many old myths and tales (eg. Beowulf).



Avatar & Ramanyana:

The Avatar: Lord Vishnu descends to earth in 'Human' form as Ram (avatar). Jake Sully's conciousness is transposed into a Na'vi body, to enable him to exist as his Na'vi avatar in Pandora.

The Physical characteristics: Tall, blue-complexioned, wearing triangular marks (Naamams) on their foreheads, long hair. Both.

Riding giant birds: Lord Vishnu usually flies on a gigantic bird called Garuda. In the Ramayana, another giant bird is referred to - Jatayu, the king of the birds. Jake Sully flies the Giant red dragon, the king of the flying creatures.

Weapons: Swords, Knives, Bows and Arrows

Philosophy: Hindus also believe that every living creature has the same divine conciousness as we do, and that violence against and killing of even an animal or a tree without a solid excuse and an apology afterwards is a grave sin.