Day 160-- on Ayn Rand
Monday, February 12, 2007
I'll give Rand this: she was occasionally capable of interesting social insight and some fair turns of phrase.
Other than that, blah. What good Rand may produce is usually drown in overwrought prose, muddled philosophy, ironic blunders, uncomfortable sex and ultimately a selfish, shallow and unredemptive worldview. And Rand books still sell--I read a figure that estimates 500K copies sold a year. I sell many copies to teenage girls at my bookstore job.
And this, in a sense, is probably why Amy Benfer wrote this incredibly accurate essay. Not only does it shine a light on many of Rand's flaws, but it A) re-affirms my conviction to never finish a Rand novel, and B) makes me laugh a lot. And if this isn't weight enough, check out some Rand facts here. Blah. Blah!
(Yes, while I've not read a Rand book, I've read enough segments to make an informed opinion. And her first name rhymes with 'mine.')
posted, with grace and poise, by Jason @ 2/12/2007 11:21:00 PM,
4 Comments:
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At 6:57 AM,
Beth said...
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Hear, hear! I post this supportive comment, since I pointed you to the Benfer article in the first place. If I had read it when I was young & foolish, would I have skipped the Rand novels? I don't know...I read a lot of dreck as a teen, but also discovered a lot of fabulous literary gold, so maybe it's all part of the process.
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At 9:51 AM,
Andy Whitman said...
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"(Yes, while I've not read a Rand book, I've read enough segments to make an informed opinion. And her first name rhymes with 'mine.')"
So "Ayn" rhymes with "Jason"? :-)
She also spawned a disciple in Rush's Neal Peart, who not only wrote lyrics inspired by her books, but who played fifteen-minute drum solos. Two more reasons to dislike her. -
At 10:38 AM,
Mike said...
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Whoa whoa... Neal Peart shrugged! While this article talks about little kids reading Rand, I spent my childhood rocking out to those very drum solos... so perhaps that I mean I was reading Rand too, only through rock.
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At 3:34 PM,
John Baldauff said...
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Ayn Rand is self-indulgent.
