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Sion · 10-20-2007, 07:11 PM

Rand's politics and philosophy (see below) have a certain attractiveness, especially to young and idealistic readers, which explains in part her continuing popularity. She was not, however, a particularly engaging author. Maybe it's due to her ethnicity, but I found her work dense and boring beyond belief, much like Dostoyevsky's. I managed to slog through about 50-75 pages of The Fountainhead before giving up. I could find no reason to care about her characters, therefore saw no reason to wade through the morass of her prose, in order to get to the philosophy or even see how the story came out.

Perhaps her other works are different, but Fountainhead left such a bad taste in my mouth (so to speak) that I've had no inclination in the intervening 15 years to find out.

from wikipedia:

Ayn Rand (IPA: /ˈaɪn ˈrænd/, February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982), born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Russian: Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум), was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher,[1] known for creating a philosophy she named "Objectivism" and for writing the novels We the Living, The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged and the novella Anthem. Her influential and often controversial ideas have attracted both enthusiastic admiration and scathing denunciation.

Rand's writing (both fiction and non-fiction) emphasizes the philosophic concepts of objective reality in metaphysics, reason in epistemology, and rational egoism in ethics. In politics she was a proponent of laissez-faire capitalism and a staunch defender of individual rights, believing that the sole function of a proper government is protection of individual rights (including property rights).

She believed that individuals must choose their values and actions solely by reason, and that "Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others." According to Rand, the individual "must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life."

Rand decried the initiation of force and fraud, and held that government action should consist only in protecting citizens from criminal aggression (via the police) and foreign aggression (via the military) and in maintaining a system of courts to decide guilt or innocence and to objectively resolve disputes. Her politics are generally described as minarchist and libertarian, though she did not use the first term and disavowed any connection to the second.[2]

Rand, a self-described hero-worshiper, stated in her book The Romantic Manifesto that the goal of her writing was "the projection of an ideal man." In reference to her philosophy, Objectivism, she said: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." (Appendix to Atlas Shrugged)

10-20-2007, 07:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
Sion Dumb all over...a little ugly on the side Location: In the room where the giant fire puffer works, and the torture never stops.	Rand's politics and philosophy (see below) have a certain attractiveness, especially to young and idealistic readers, which explains in part her continuing popularity. She was not, however, a particularly engaging author. Maybe it's due to her ethnicity, but I found her work dense and boring beyond belief, much like Dostoyevsky's. I managed to slog through about 50-75 pages of The Fountainhead before giving up. I could find no reason to care about her characters, therefore saw no reason to wade through the morass of her prose, in order to get to the philosophy or even see how the story came out. Perhaps her other works are different, but Fountainhead left such a bad taste in my mouth (so to speak) that I've had no inclination in the intervening 15 years to find out. from wikipedia: Ayn Rand (IPA: /ˈaɪn ˈrænd/, February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982), born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Russian: Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум), was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher,[1] known for creating a philosophy she named "Objectivism" and for writing the novels We the Living, The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged and the novella Anthem. Her influential and often controversial ideas have attracted both enthusiastic admiration and scathing denunciation. Rand's writing (both fiction and non-fiction) emphasizes the philosophic concepts of objective reality in metaphysics, reason in epistemology, and rational egoism in ethics. In politics she was a proponent of laissez-faire capitalism and a staunch defender of individual rights, believing that the sole function of a proper government is protection of individual rights (including property rights). She believed that individuals must choose their values and actions solely by reason, and that "Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others." According to Rand, the individual "must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life." Rand decried the initiation of force and fraud, and held that government action should consist only in protecting citizens from criminal aggression (via the police) and foreign aggression (via the military) and in maintaining a system of courts to decide guilt or innocence and to objectively resolve disputes. Her politics are generally described as minarchist and libertarian, though she did not use the first term and disavowed any connection to the second.[2] Rand, a self-described hero-worshiper, stated in her book The Romantic Manifesto that the goal of her writing was "the projection of an ideal man." In reference to her philosophy, Objectivism, she said: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." (Appendix to Atlas Shrugged) __________________ He's the best, of course, of all the worst. Some wrong been done, he done it first. -fz I jus' want ta thank you...falettinme...be mice elf...agin...