Morgoth (Melkor) is Tolkien's reworking of Shakespeare's Hamlet, inspired by the personality of Beethoven. Sauron (Mairon) is Tolkien's reworking of the folkloric figure of King Arthur, inspired by the personality of Goethe.

FANTASTIC TALES AND RISK

There are three kinds of fantastic tales: fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction.

How does each of these three kinds of fantastic tales deal with the phenomenon of risk?

There is no true risk in fairy tales: characters may be unaware of their fate, but their lives are already destined for either happy or tragic endings.

Unlike fairy tales, fantasy takes the phenomenon of risk more seriously: there is no predetermined fate, but all risks can be measured.

Unlike science fiction, fantasy does not tolerate chaos: due to their psychological or spiritual flaws, characters may misjudge the risks they face, but the author always gives them enough data to make the correct evaluation.

The Champions of Philosophy

Most legendary philosophers—even Plato and Marcus Aurelius—were noticeably inferior to Gautama Buddha. Even the magnificent works of Plotinus, Pascal, and Kierkegaard cannot rival the Buddhist philosophy of enlightenment. It took two thousand years after the Buddha's death before anyone produced a philosophy of equal stature: Hegel. After him, only Schopenhauer, Heidegger, Bataille, Sartre, and Foucault managed to match that achievement—not surpass it, but merely equal it.

Among the famous philosophers, only Nietzsche, Cioran, and Wilber succeeded in creating philosophies that, in my view, surpassed the Buddha's. And perhaps I will as well—if I succeed in popularizing my own philosophy.