every time you read ayn rand...
god kills a puppy.
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every time you read ayn rand...
god kills a puppy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by metaxy99
:lol: :nod:
I've read Atlas Shrugged. Her Philosophies and mine don't really mix well but it was a pretty good book, although it did tend to yammer on....
Beautiful, Metaxy99. I'm sorry to say I read a couple of Rand's books in my callous youth, and was underwhelmed. I'm sorry now to hear about the puppies.
I was reading more about Ayn Rand just last week. (This is from memory, so sorry for lack of details). She had an inner circle of followers, and she picked one man to be her heir/successor, Nathaniel Branden. Branden was married, and Ayn Rand was married. The only problem was, they were not married to each other! At a certain point in time, Ayn Rand suddenly decided that her heir should also be her lover, and that her husband and the heir's wife should consent to this arrangement, which they did. After a while, her lover dumped Ayn Rand and Rand became extremely angry and vindictive, thus breaking one of her own rules that one should never make one's own happiness dependent upon someone or something else.
Ayn was something of a romantic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ayn Rand's Oath
I am reminded of Sartre and Simone de Bouvier, who were lifelong lovers, but always had other lovers on the side. The two became best friends for a while with Albert Camus. One day Simone told Albert he could take her to bed if he liked. Albert declined the invitation and Jean-Paul was livid with rage at what he perceived as an insult. From then on, Camus became their arch enemy, and they would say uncharitable things about Camus' work.
I remember watching a very old movie on television in the 1960s, about a missionary priest who goes to visit an Eskimo and his wife, Mrs. Eskimo, in the igloo. This is going to sound like a joke but there really was such a movie. Mr. Eskimo decides to be a good host, and brings out a dish of his choicest wriggling worms. The priest makes something of a face and declines. Mr. Eskimo looks slightly puzzled (how could anyone say no to worms), but then, a light bulb goes on over his head and he thinks "perhaps the good Reverend is not hungry." So, next, he offers to let the padre have his wife. Apparently this was actually an ancient practice of hospitality among Eskimos, what with wives and igloos being as hard to find as restrooms in a big city. Well, the priest really looks horrified, and shows it. The Eskimo, being totally unaware of how heinous and revolting mortal sin can be, mistakes the reaction as a commentary on the desirability of Mrs. Eskimo, so Mr. Eskimo kills the missionary. I can’t remember anything more about the movie. It seems to me that Father would have been better off eating the worms and kanoodling the lady. But then, I am sure the church reckoned his a martyr’s death.
The moral to these stories is that the offering and decline of sexual favors is far more delicate a matter than meets the eye, and may be hazardous to your health, if you are above the arctic circle, and if you are not, then, at least it wont do your literary career one bit of good.
Ayn Rand had been of a mind to call her book "Atlas Philosophy" when her husband (her REAL husband) said, "Well, you might as well just call it Atlas Shrugged." And she did. Marriage is a noble institution.
Faulkner was going to call his latest novel "Dark Horse", but, one day, his wife commented to him that "the light has an unusual quality in August." Faulkner jumped up, knocked over his Underwood, and said, "That's it! My novel shall be called Light in August!" Now, don't you wish you were married too?
Just think! If only Sartre had married Simone, he might have had better titles than Nausea.
I REALLY REALLY LIKED ATLAS SHRUGGED
But she used it as a discertation on her social views ... rather than just telling a story...
Which upset me tremendously.
The story was pretty good... I had to skip a chapter because she was going on and on about her "character's" beliefs... it was disgusting. I almost threw the book away in disgust... but ended up skimming the chapter for anything that looked vaguely related to the plot...found nothing, so skipped it. So, if you don't mind her trying to force her philosophy down your throat, go for it... its really a superbly crafted novel...most of it.
What fool said.Quote:
Originally Posted by imthefoolonthehill
Ayn Rand.......nice writing style, but I think she was somewhat of a dreamer, trying to live by a philosophy that has no place in the real world. Shut yourself off from everything that makes you human, complete objectivity (unattainable, but some philosophers may disagree) as an approach to life is only possible if you are made of concrete............
Her philosophy indicated to me a badly wounded soul, a need to shut out all feelings or emotion. Can anyone do this and still consider themselves alive??
That said, Rand should still be read. While her 'tomes' tend to rival the bible for sheer volume of content, the experience won't kill ya', and most folks on this site couldn't read only part of a book if their lives depended on it!! Readaholics Anonymous members will affirm this.........
This seems entirely why I have a slight fear of reading Ayn Rand's work. I have read passages of Atlas Shrugged and Anthem, and I cannot quite judge a book wholly for only reading little, but our ideas clash quite a fair amount, regarding objectivity and subjectivity. Perhaps I have obsessed and read too much Immanuel Kant, who, I find, a brilliant thinker, and his philosophy on subjectivity, but I will never discrimate another's beliefs. She seemed very wise and wrote beautifully, I only cannot call her literature my cup-of-tea. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by baddad
I consider the following a very appropriate characterization of Ayn Rand:
http://www.reason.com/0503/fe.cy.ayn.shtml
Let me add some of my opinions too. I read Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and much of her non-fictional work. I simply loved Fountainhead and it is one of my favorite novels. I really like Atlas Shrugged for its plot, and pure brilliance of story-telling. Nevertheless, I think that her over-emphasis on certain ideas and her attempt to introduce them into every tiny detail of the plot, take substantially away from the romance in Atlas Shrugged - which I think must be an essential ingredient of any work of fiction.
I liked many of her essays too very much. Particularly, I would mention Voice of Reason and Romantic Manifesto. In one of the esssays in the later collection, she says it is possible to say of a work of literature "I consider it a great book, but I do not like it". Essentially, she is is highlighting two distinguishing features - the intrinsic worth of a book and what it actually says. You might not agree with what a book says, but you can admit that it is an intrinsically great book. I guess same can be said of Rand's own work by many people. Most of her essays were very well written and are developed in a very logically coherent way. It is another matter if you do not agree with her premises and thus reject her point of view.
I personally do not agree with her political philosophy of laissez faire capitalism nor her emphasis that such ideaology should guide every aspect of a human being's life. As is mentioned in the above mentioned link the totalism of her philosophy was a major flaw in the philosophy of Ayn Rand.
But at worst this makes her a flawed philosopher. As a writer I consider her one of the greatest (at least, among what I read) and her works first class. Anyone who enjoys literature must read Ayn Rand - irrespective of his/her philosophical leaning.
So she's actually good? Oh, OK. I'd heard she was trash, so never read her.
This line that Sitaram quotes is interesting:
'I swear by my life and my love of it that I shall never live for another's sake, nor ask anyone to live for mine.'
It's interesting becaus Rand's circle gave us Milton Friedman, the man behind monetarism, which was the major creed underpinning Thatcherism and Reaganomics and the quote sounds like a direct precursor of Thatcher's 'There's no such thing as society'. And that idea, for the effects it's had, is hard to forgive.
I think what her experienced made her philosophy,she had a feaful childhood,filled with revolusion,she needed power to protec herself from cruel world and need a hero to heal the world,yet her books is good,at lease contain part of truth.
I agree ...as always, and no less so with Ayn Rand, a life bleeds through the author's fingers to stain the page......Quote:
Originally Posted by red leaves
Hey I was just wondering which One of the Ayn Rand books would you recommend,or which would you consider the best.My library pretty much sucks,but they have an infinite supply of Ayn Rand.So for future reference it would be nice to know where to start.
I tried Atlas Shrugged and after about 50 pages I gave up. I got a collection of her books in my library unread.
I read Fountainhead for my grade 12 philosphy class. It is an excelent way of studying her "philosophy" if you like Ayn Rand ... but I personally would not recomend any of her work.