Camille Paglia Predicted 2017: What the ’90s provocateur understands about the Trump era

New York Magazine ^ | March 7, 2017 | Molly Fischer

[poconopundit]

Most media writers today would not treat a philosopher like Camille Paglia with the proper respect. They'd either dilute her insights into a lifeless Wiki-style summary, or springboard off her deeply-reasoned ideas to pen their own sophomoric babble. So I congratulate writer Molly Fischer for breaking the mould and sculpting a magnificent portrait of Paglia.  This story -- based on a three and a half hour interview with Paglia at a nameless New York restaurant -- brims with intellectual boldness, humorous anecdotes, and flashbacks across Paglia's long and controversial career as a free-thinker. I will not insult the intelligence of FReepers (who hunger for great journalism) by excerpting the story.  It would only take the fun out of a true reading adventure. I only learned who Paglia was a couple months back when I heard Milo Yiannopolous praise her work. Suffice it to say, Paglia is a professor and scholar who has extensively studied and written about Ancient and Western civilization.  She is best known as author of a few books on feminism... and is hated by all the right people.  Her persona?  Imagine a cross between Arial Durant, Ayn Rand and Donald Trump. Now this piece is 3,240 words long, so you may want to bookmark it for a moment when you have some time.  A glass of red wine or a fine Cuban cigar would make reading it all the more pleasurable :- )  I look forward to your comments.

[Chauncey Gardiner]

I remember “back in the day” when she wore that black leather miniskirt. Oy! Have always enjoyed heer writings; certainly not a part of the mindless herd that is today’s left.

[marktwain]

She never shook off the state-enforced atheism of the state she hated so much, which was a pity.

---

Yes, and her personal life was a disaster.

Rand had some great insights. But she simply assumed that belief in God was stupid. She never made a case for atheism, that I recall.

[Steely Tom]

She was a sworn enemy of the collectivist mindset in all its forms and was quite good at creating a manifesto but a novelist she was not.

No, I don't think anyone can argue that Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead are great literature, or share much in common with The Great Gatsby or The Sun Also Rises.

But that's not really the point of those novels, in my opinion. They are just packages for Rand's philosophy, which is fairly nuanced and thoroughly thought through.

I don't think anyone has ever made a more clearly enunciated argument for freedom, and for the inescapable connection between physical freedom, political freedom, intellectual freedom, and economic freedom (also known as Capitalism).

Yes, it can certainly be argued that she rather beats the subject to death, but of all subjects that it might be worth "beating to death," I think the superiority and inevitability of Capitalism is possibly the one at the top of the list.

And neither of her two great novels are really bad novels.

They're not unreadable, by any means.

I think Ayn Rand aspired to be a writer in the same vein as Raymond Chandler, or Dashiell Hammett. I don't know if she really succeeded in achieving that level, but she certainly didn't embarrass herself in the attempt, IMO.

[proud American in Canada]

I will definitely read this!

Thanks for posting this.

[RegulatorCountry]

I've read most of her works, even earlier more obscure ones such as Anthem. Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt the power of what she wrote but how she wrote it gave me a giggle at the time, even as a starry-eyed libertarian at the time, who welcomed her message with open arms. The stereotypical Randian protagonist hopping on a soapbox for a chapter-long tortured soliloquy is sort of funny, you've got to admit.

[chasio649]

Limbaugh has always been a fan of Paglia.

[Sans-Culotte]

Bump for later (when I can read it on my iPad on the back deck with a cigar).

[2big2fail]

You are so right! Beautifully stated!

[RegulatorCountry]

Did I mention that it was a very, very wooden soapbox?

[Steely Tom]

The stereotypical Randian protagonist hopping on a soapbox for a chapter-long tortured soliloquy is sort of funny, you've got to admit.

Yes, I remember Anthem, which I tried but found unreadable.

Also We The Living, about life in Communist Russia, was not very good. Those two (Anthem and We The Living) were among her earliest works, weren't they?

She was — in one instance that I know of — capable of actually being funny.

That was when — in The Fountainhead — damaged billionaire hero Gail Wynand is conversing with collectivist bad-guy Ellsworth Toohey:

Toohey had expected Wynand to call for him after the interview with Dominique. Wynand had not called. But a few days later, meeting Toohey by chance in the city room, Wynand asked aloud:

"Mr. Toohey, have so many people tried to kill you that you can't remember their names?"

Toohey smiled and said: "I'm sure quite so many would like to."

"You flatter your fellow men," said Wynand, walking away.

That really made me laugh, the when I read it as a twenty-year-old.

[RegulatorCountry]

My mental image of Ellsworth Toohey from all those years ago was remarkably similar to the Karl Rove of today.

How’s that for prescient?

[Steely Tom]

I had a hard time (as a twenty-year-old) visualizing any of Rand's characters, except perhaps Dominique Francon, whom I pictured as looking something like actress Veronica Lake.

I think Karl Rove might make a very good Ellsworth Toohey.

I remember that Howard Roark had red hair, "the color of an aluminum-copper alloy" was I believe Ayn Rand's description of it.

I remember that because as an electrical engineering student, and one who knew a little about alloys, I didn't think it was possible to make an alloy of aluminum and copper.

That appears to not be the case. There are alloys called "aluminum bronzes," although you can't put very much aluminum in. They do have an interesting, golden color.

Of course, there was no Google back in 1974, so it wasn't so easy for me to come up with a quick answer to that question.

Amazing time we live in.

[aquila48]

I’ve followed Paglia for quite a few years. She’s an intellectual power house, though, she still hasn’t totally escaped the liberal plantation. She supported Bernie in the primaries and Jill Stein in the general.

[HokieMom]

I only learned who Paglia was a couple months back when I heard Milo Yiannopolous praise her work.

It's so interesting you post this. Just this week I'd thought about her since I'm a Milo fan and his work and style, somewhat, remind me so much of Paglia. I've missed hearing her take on things.

[jmacusa]

Indeed. And she is , without a doubt one of the most rapid fire speaking individuals I have ever heard.

[poconopundit]

She’s an intellectual power house, though, she still hasn’t totally escaped the liberal plantation.

I concur. I went back and looked at some of the articles of the campaign she wrote.

It's curious how smart she is on the feminism issue but loved Bernie Sanders. Here's May 2016 story she wrote:

...While it’s both riveting and exhilarating to watch a fossilized American political party being blown up and remade, it’s also highly worrisome that a man with no prior political experience and little perceptible patience for serious study seems on a fast track to the White House...

I never could understand the "lacks political experience" theme.  Getting a skyscraper built in NYC is a monumental political feat.

It's funny how incredibly bright people in academic circles lack common sense on many issues.

[AZLiberty]

One thing shared by Trump, Paglia, and Rand is the primacy of reality. Rand called A “A”, and Trump and Paglia continually call a spade a spade, with nary a thought to political correctness.

[poconopundit]

Yes, I agree, crave people who call a spade a spade.

We live in a world of charlatans, con-artists, and clowns. We seek truth and honesty and it can thrilling when we find it.

[Drew68]

bfl

[joseph2]

She’s also written more honestly about homosexuality than anybody else. She’s virtually the only person who publicly challenges the complete one-sidedness about that subject that one gets in the media.