Tragic figures may be lacking in contemporary fiction, but there's no shortage of them in contemporary real life. Michael Jackson. Julian Assange. Donald Trump.

Tragic figures may be lacking in contemporary fiction, but there's no shortage of them in contemporary real life. Michael Jackson. Julian Assange. Donald Trump. Richard Stallman. Diego Maradona. All exceptional people whose undoing was of their own accord. We may be failing to confront tragedy as a society, but tragedy is part of the human condition, there can be no escaping it.