Posted on 01/05/2005 11:22:24 AM PST by annyokie
A century from now, Rand's work will be remembered, and it will probably be on everyone's college reading list. She was one of the most important authors of the 20th century.
I beg to disagree. Miss Rand's books are cant for her acolytes.
LOL!!! There's a reason why this is a classic review.
I always thought that she felt she got a great deal on adjectives and sub-plots and felt the need to use them all.
There is a reason thirties gangster movies were that way - they reflected the actual styles and speech of the times.
Read some Damon Runyan sometime.
Ayn Rand was of that generation - actually an immigrant from Russia who was dropped into it, so that was America to her.
You just had to go and ruin their lives now didn'tcha. But seriously, good call. They may even thank you for it someday.
Spare yourself and please don't read The Catcher in the Rye if it is on your "to do" list.
Too late. Grew up in Canada. It was on our high school reading list.
"A century from now, Rand's work will be remembered, and it will probably be on everyone's college reading list. She was one of the most important authors of the 20th century."
Only if all the religious colleges turn from God, and only if all the leftist atheist colleges turn to libertarian atheist colleges.
And all those colleges now add up to pretty much the vast majority of all institutions of higher learning.
I always say there is value in anything, and one should read books for their valuable material, and all of them have a load of useless slag.
In that sense, there is a lot of value to Rand. She defined and popularized the "pure" stream of libertarianism as a political philosophy, which was a big part of the US ideological ideal - and this is one of the two ideas that makes America unique.
The distilled essence of anything is likely to taste awful, but its useful to see the pure thing.
And Rand, like her or not, probably did more than anyone to make this ideal popular. Until then libertarianism was either an obscure academic matter or an invisible part of US culture.
Strangely enough, until recently it has always been foreigners who have described it philsophically or aspects of it - Toqueville and Bastiat(Frenchmen), Rand(a Russian), Von Mises and Hayek (Austrians).
We may be on our way to voluntary taxation. The Fait Tax is gaining momentum in Congress. It is in every way voluntary taxation.
No, read it. A lot of people think that way, and never grow out of it. Salinger caught it in a short book.
"We may be on our way to voluntary taxation. The Fait Tax is gaining momentum in Congress. It is in every way voluntary taxation."
Our military, police forces, and highway infrastructure will suffer.
I have read it and did an interperative psychological analysis on it in college. Barf. What a sophomoric tome.
I have noted, and your sig line reinforces my observation, that Rand followers (no insult intended) are universally hostile to Christianity. Not unsurprising, as Ayn Rand came from hard times in a hard country (atheistic Russia).
I would be interested in hearing from any Christians who have read Ayn Rand, if there are any. Again, I have yet to meet even one.
(Just to remind the readers: Sig line was "If you are not disquieted by "One nation under God," try "One nation under Allah.")
It is, in fact, the precisely because this nation was a nation founded under God (however you personally define him), that allowed the individual freedom and explosion of creative thought that made this nation great.
This fear-mongering of Christians has simply got to stop. It's offensive. It's anti-American. It's not traditional. And it doesn't give appropriate credit where credit is due!
There is no reason to take books as the given word. There is much value in reading things with which you disagree.
If there is any justice in the world, future students of political philosophy should read both Rand and Hayek, among many others. Libertarianism is an interesting, relevant, and new strain of thought, as these things go.
Ah; I see the problem!
Note that Chambers is nowhere to be found on this TOP 100 Books of the 20th Century List:
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100rivallist.html
OTOH, Rand does show up on the list..... TWICE!
Rand's cartoonish view of humanity was a function of her essential adolescence.
Adolescent politics are elitist. They see the world as one big Beverly Hills 90210 where the brilliant, beautiful, cool crowd rule the geeks and dorks and are fawned over by the wannabes. One imagines Rand smiling benignly as the jocks shove some dork's head into the toilet. They are the politics people have before they have the maturity to understand that force is not strength and beauty is not goodness and cleverness is not wisdom.
In "Atlas Shrugged" a man in love with Dagny Taggart accepts that he is unworthy of her because John Galt is smarter. Is IQ the yardstick of worthiness ? To an elitist, to a snob, it would be. Is verbal cleverness wisdom ? To a fool of an adolescent it would be.
Precisely. It is almost by definition sophomoric.
That is why it is worth reading, because you will find yourself finding the same thing elsewhere, and you will know where this sort of mindset comes from.
Do Catholics count ?
I have read every bit of Rand I could find when I was young.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.