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Pastimes : A CENTURY OF LIONS/THE 20TH CENTURY TOP 100 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (1426)	11/12/1999 9:11:00 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3246

I would speculate that Rand is widely translated. Horrendously turgid...LOL, I've been kinder in the past by calling her writing pedestrian. There are sections of Atlas where your description is more accurate. But come on, you don't like people who always "stride purposefully" across a room rather than just walk? Or, at the end of the day, discuss what noble achievements they accomplished that day? What, exactly, is Ayn Rand? That's a good question. Some say she founded a philosophical movement and was the greatest person to have lived, others say she was a Hollywood hanger-on who managed to crank out volumes of amphetamine inspired ramblings. The latter description is a bit harsh but is probably closer to the truth. Her stark tone and didactic style can be explained because as a young girl she stood on her parent's balcony in Moscow and watched the Bolsheviks wreak their havoc. I think those images were always with her. She came along at a time when Socialism was on the march and she helped to fill a void. I like the James Fallows essay. He ignored his advisor's advice and went slightly pink after all, didn't he? I can't quibble with his assessment of Atlas, but he ignored The Fountainhead. If Rand had stopped there I think we would regard her in a different light. That too is a parable, but at least it is coherent with believable characters. And she succeeds in making her point. Atlas reads like a comic book. The characters are unbelievable and the plot is ludicrous. Its interesting that The Fountainhead was written in 1943 and Atlas was written in 1957. Something happened during that time that caused her writing to take on the tone that it did. Not that Atlas was any more radical, The Fountainhead was quite radical. But it was a focused and coherent argument. Atlas was a rambling diatribe, and as Fallows pointed out, filled with unnecessarily vicious dialogues. I wish my lasting impression of Rand could be that of a noble figure, but it's difficult to think of her that way. When I think of her these days, I think of that famous photo of her with her silly Napoleon hat, foot long cigarette holder, dollar sign brooch, (we still see these, btw) and her eyes as wide as saucers. Obviously speeding her brains out. Even with that harsh assessment, we can't deny her influence on generations of college students. I didn't read her until my late 20's, and like I said earlier, there was no going back to my previous way of thinking. I was never a "Randian", and I think she was way off base on numerous issues, but the fact remains she takes a 2x4, hits you over the head with it, and when you come to, you regard the world just a little bit differently. At least if you're a liberal.