Posted: Oct 02, 2013 6:30 pm
Ian Tattum wrote:
Could that work as a radio play? Both better than the Buddha though because everything that would interest a modern audience happened before he became the Buddha!
Muhammad's life would doubtless be a failure as a radio play. It cries out for a cinematic treatment. In terms of interest, though, I think Jesus is topped by Mo as a character, and trumped just slightly by the Buddha as a sage dispenser of philosophy or doctrine (personally, I'll take Seneca over either one of them). Seneca might even rival Muhammad for being interesting: tutor to the young Caligula, adversary of Messalina, sexually licentious, glibly atheistic, and an elegant writer of self-denying stoical doctrines despite him likely being something of a sensualist himself. And, like Jesus, a bloody death: but with none of that awful "there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood" business. With all the serenity of Socrates putting the cup to his lips, Seneca obediently slit his wrists and died in a warm bath.
Again, altogether much more fascinating than the gospels.