Yesterday I was reminded that even if Tolkien didn't read The Ring of Gyges in Plato's Republic (wherein Glaucon tells the story of an invisible ring used to great harm to ask Socrates how to live), it would've come to him through the medieval poem Iwein, influenced by the same.
Literature is humanity speaking itself to itself over time.
Everyone who engages in this conversation is part of a continuum with consequences greater than we might ever live to realize.
Happy writing, #WritersOfCoSo.