There is stuff in Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit that appears to happen by chance: towards the end of LOTR, Gandalf suggests that some Higher Power had made things happen to suit His Plan.

Thorne Smith died in 1934, so I don't see him suing you.

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all."--Oscar Wilde

So your descriptions are blocky. Can you write in a language other than English? I read an interview with Murakami, in which he said that he didn't like the style that he used initially for his first novel (too flowery). So he rewrote the first chapter in English, accepting the limitations of his English (he couldn't do flowery), translated into Japanese, and decided he liked the simple style that resulted, so he imitated it.

Thanks for drawing my attention to Akutagawa. I hadn't heard of him, but Wikipedia tells me that he inspired Rashomon.

Here is another thought: have you read much of Borges? I suggest that you compare Streetcorner Man with the later Rosendo's tale. The same incident, and the same central character, but two totally different points of view: hero or cockroach?

@Amadeus Vito Corleone didn't start as a bad guy either: a Mafia boss had killed his father back in Sicily, so he moved to America to get away from that stuff. But he had a family to support and needed extra income... IMHO the tragedy of the Godfather is a bit like one of the Greek tragedies, where The Agamemnon, and the Libation Bearers are just 2 episodes in the way one family handles its curse. (A family that slays together stays together)

I wonder whether Exodus 20:7 (Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain) was an early attempt to trademark the name of a Deity.