Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Contrarian report ...

... On The Left-Wing Reaction to John Galt, Ayn Rand, and Tea Parties.

See also Is Rand Relevant?

Like it or not, agree or not, this is a trend worth watching. Which probably means you'll have to watch it here, since you sure in hell ain't gonna see much about it right away in the papers.

More here.

I have boldfaced the sentence above in order to make plain the point of this posting. Distaste and disapproval are not arguments.

Post bumped.

8 comments:

  1. Am I correct in discerning an implicit recommendation that it is time to read Ayn Rand? I recall reading her work decades ago, though I do not think I absorbed much except something along the lines of the "virtue of selfishness." So, read her again, you say?

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  2. Oh, no. I don't think I could bear to read Rand again, not in a million mirrors. All I remember is that statue getting smashed because such beauty ought not be allowed to exist. Re-read her?

    [*Shrug*] I'd rather eat a gun.

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  3. I am neutral on the question. If someone wants to read Rand, it's OK by me. I posted this because it is something that is happening that I think worth noting. I also think it is worth tracking to see where it leads. That is what I think reporting is all about.

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  4. I'm noticed more than once that many adolescents I know go through a Rand period; usually in their late teens. (This is often also their Herman Hesse period.) There's something fundamentally adolescent about Rand's brand of self-assertive individualism. It's teenage rebellion against the received truths of the tribal culture one is born into; it's about becoming an individual rather than a drone. As far as that goes, it's no bad thing, but it does need to be put in context as an evolutionary phase that one is supposed to go through, and evolve past, and not remain stuck in. It's a necessary period that many folks (especially artists?) need to go through, to affirm their own purposes in the face of collective rejection or mass indifference. Most young artists I've known, myself included, go through this rebellious Hero-Artist period.

    But then we all have to grow up a bit. Selfishness is a childish virtue; selflessness is an adult virtue. It's hard for me not to see most of Rand's heroes as arrested adolescents. Not that Rand is at all unique in this. Think of John Updike's character Rabbit Armstrong, a classic arrested adolescent if ever there was one. But that just points out how much better a writer Updike was: Rabbit is a lot more human, a fully-fleshed-out character, not an ideologic cypher.

    The problem, also, is that most of the collectives that Rand's heroes set themselves up in opposition to are straw-men. They're collectives that can only exist as generalities or stereotypes. Rand's anti-collective polemic has no nuance, and that's why most of her characters, whether portrayed as good or bad, are cardboard-thin.

    As for Rand's writing style or literary merit, please. It's just bad writing. Read it for the ideas, not for literary merit. Even a "no-style" writer like Dan Brown is a better stylist. Rand was all about her ideas, and not at all about literature.

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  5. Art, your last sentence says it all: She does not write literature, she creates propaganda under the guise of telling a story. But, the story does not stand, not on its own legs.

    Her philosophy, if that's what one calls it, goes against everything I know to be true; and, I believe Frank would agree on this, too.

    If you see a human being suffering and have the way or means to help ease that suffering (but elect to turn away from it), I believe that makes you inhuman/e. I am here thinking of anyone who's kicked a pan-handler or addict or . . .

    I lived with someone who insisted I could not understand him till I'd read Rand (which is how I came to do so in the first place). A rich man, owns half of Key West, now; but, the day I watched him turf a teenage unwed mother and her five-day old infant from the room he'd been renting her because she was one day late on the rent (and, of course, had just given birth so could not work), that was they day I left forever, even remember the date, 19 October (which was, coincidentally, the day FLA passed its law allowing its residents to carry weapons).

    Rand's theories work for those who do not wish to be remembered as human beings; rather, they wish to be remembered as successful individuals (but, rarely, if ever does that happen). Why? Because a human being would not kick a pan-handler, period.

    That human being may not have enough to spare a dime; but, they have a heart (and, by Rand's way of thinking, heart and beauty both come under the heading of Crime).
    p.s. Frank was so right about the latest batch of poems . . . Whoa . . . one of them made me cry, the one about the service; and, yes, although I don't believe in the concept of closure, I think you helped eased some atomic pain I'd been pushing away to save my life so, thanks for that and all you make

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  6. Yes, Art, your last sentence does say it all about Miss Rand's writing. But since you mention Hermann Hesse, I feel it necessary to point out that Hesse is in fact a very good writer. He writes an unusually limpid German, and I think three of Strauss's Four Last Songs are by Hesse, who was also a good poet. He should not be judged by his fans.

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  7. Oh I agree about Hesse. I meant no disparagement of his writing. I'd like to re-read Magister Ludi soon, actually.

    Nonetheless, there is an attraction towards Hesse by many late teenagers. That search of identity, trying to figure out who one is, the difficulties of attaining adulthood, etc. It's a different kind of individualist exploration than Rand, most certainly. And probably a better kind. My only point was that Hesse is often attractive to that same age-group.

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  8. Ick! Cannae stan' Hesse, never could finish a book of his; but, don't worry, I never could get past the first page of LOTR books, either. P'raps 'splains my aversion to Led Zep (who, if I may admit, confess, reveal, I actually have come to, well, not utterly and obviously disparagingly hate, particularly since RP wears a pinky ring and has take up with Alison Krauss, mebbe). Still, "Stairway To Heaven" is the most over-rated song in the history of popular music and really makes no sense; when I did teach, I allowed students to bring lyrics as examples of poems with that ONE awful exception and invariably, a collective groan arose from them wee know-it-alls :).

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