[–]mariox19 2 points 4 months ago
I enjoyed the Rodney Dangerfield part, too. For some reason though, the Village People comment struck me as the most outlandishly funny one that somehow still managed to ring true.
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[–]zak_on_reddit 0 points 4 months ago
here's my take on the Villiage people comment
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[–]mariox19 0 points 4 months ago
Yes, the Alan Alda part is why it rings true. But at the same time, I love the "I have no delusions" part. That ties it all together for me. That too rings true; but of course, followed by the phrase it's followed by, ratchets up the absurdity of the whole thing.
By the way, I'm a great admirer of her writings. I didn't think the whole thing was terribly funny (I actually thought some of it was a bit forced), but some of it was very funny.
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[–]69Liters 8 points 4 months ago
Hodgman manages to rather perfectly satirize Rand. Very funny read.
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[–]MrSpiteCold Days[S] 13 points 4 months ago
Oh yeah, Hodgman recently appeared as Rand on the Dead Authors Podcast (hosted by Paul F. Tompkins as HG Wells) and... yeah, he was definitely being ironic.
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[–]MrSpiteCold Days[S] 5 points 4 months ago
If anyone wants to hear Hodgman doing his best Ayn Rand impression (and quoting many of the lines he uses in his New Yorker article), here's his appearance as Rand on the Dead Authors Podcast. It's pretty fantastic.
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[–]networklackey 6 points 4 months ago
Yeah... the second I read the title I wondered about all the people that were going to take this seriously.
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[–]dakkster 1 point 4 months ago
Hodgman has kind of gained grandmaster level of irony. He's been doing it so long and so often that it's hard to tell the difference between him being ironic or serious.
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[–]stouk 8 points 4 months ago
Fresca cans are hard to open, but I'll be damned if someone helps me open it.
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[–]zak_on_reddit 6 points 4 months ago
Love this quote from the article..."I saw on television...the Village People. These are very exuberant, virile men...they expressed in their dancing the kind of unapologetic enthusiasm for their masculinity that so many in our culture wish to repress in favor of Alan Alda."
Too funny.
In Ayn's world, being unapologetically gay is more masculine than being Alan Alda, who's character on M.A.S.H., Hawkeye, was an anti-war, serial womanizer.
:)
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[–]hoory 3 points 4 months ago
Sounds like Camille Paglia today.
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[–]dubiouslynamed 10 points 4 months ago
John Hodgman is a silly and subtle guy. Absurd in the extreme and yet so good at sounding stuffy and intellectual. Perfect! A very different kind of humor. He says things like a professor would, with a straight face, that are the most totally absurd things you could ever think of. He has a totally bizarre list of Hobo names in one of his books, all cataloged as if true. He posits the existence of a state named Ar that floats around in the sky, talks about the native american Thunderbird as if it is real, all in scholarly language as if it is simply fact.
“This is not to say there are not Chicagoans. But I would suggest that they are a nomadic people, whose lost home exists only in their minds, and in the glowing crystal memory cells they all carry in the palms of their hands: a great idea of a second city, lit with life and love, reasonable drink prices at cool bars, and, of course, blocks and blocks of bright and devastating fire.” ? John Hodgman, The Areas of My Expertise
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[–]Amocito 2 points 4 months ago
Have you watched Ragnarok? It's streaming on Netflix and is the all the best that John Hodgman always is. Also, his Judge John Hodgman podcast.
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[–]dubiouslynamed 1 point 4 months ago
Not yet. Thanks!
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[–]testudinoidea 6 points 4 months ago
Fascinating... Of course it is a well known fact that she was a fan of Charlie's Angels. I did once read a 1962 essay by Gore Vidal that described her Jaguar roar as "terrifying" but have seen few references to it elsewhere. We all owe Mr. Hodgman a debt of gratitude for re-discovering the lost output of an incredible intellect.
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[–]Vio_ 3 points 4 months ago
Most people's muses are some hot chick they're trying to bang. John Hodgman's muse is definitely not.
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[–]eris1967 3 points 4 months ago
John Hodgeman is a time traveler.
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[–]NoBromo1 13 points 4 months ago
I think this is the first time I've seen someone talk about Ayn Rand (positively or negatively) without sounding like a total cunt. I'm sure the comments will make up for it, sadly.
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[–]WTS_BRIDGE 16 points 4 months ago
He's a comedian... if that's what it takes to talk about Rand with a straight face, well...
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[–]MadcowPSAScience Fiction 5 points 4 months ago
I mean, ignoring the politics and philosophy of her work, her writing was just... mediocre. I found her prose to be long-winded, pedantic and haughty and to have a dogged tendency to belabor any point -- whether narrative or philosophical -- it tried to make. I'll keep my views on her philosophy to myself, but her fiction strikes me as thoroughly ham-fisted and uninspired. The woman just did not have a talent for effective or subtle allegory.
The piece MrSprite shared with us, however, was a fairly amusing bit of parody that I'd probably rank with the Telegraph article about Dan Brown, by Michael Deacon, but short of, say, The Rape of the Lock or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In either case, not a bad bit of playful satire.
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[–]macromorgan 16 points 4 months ago
I too found her shallow and pedantic.
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[–]questionthis 8 points 4 months ago
You should listen to yourself
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[–][deleted] 5 points 4 months ago
Still better than the shit you just spewed here. Pedantic, haughty, a dogged tendancy to belabor... You're trying too hard bud.
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[–]yokiedinosaur 2 points 4 months ago
I don't quite get the point of this comment. Does MadcowPSA "trying too hard" mean s/he's wrong about Ayn Rand's writing?
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[–]questionthis 4 points 4 months ago
He's saying that...
I found her prose to be long-winded, pedantic and haughty and to have a dogged tendency to belabor any point -- whether narrative or philosophical -- it tried to make.
...Could be said about the following written work....
I found her prose to be long-winded, pedantic and haughty and to have a dogged tendency to belabor any point -- whether narrative or philosophical -- it tried to make. I'll keep my views on her philosophy to myself, but her fiction strikes me as thoroughly ham-fisted and uninspired. The woman just did not have a talent for effective or subtle allegory. The piece MrSprite shared with us, however, was a fairly amusing bit of parody that I'd probably rank with the Telegraph article about Dan Brown, by Michael Deacon, but short of, say, The Rape of the Lock or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In either case, not a
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[–]ermahgerdstermpernk 1 point 4 months ago*
Maybe....maybe its some sort of cognitive dissonance? Or ironic prose? Using the very things he despises in her work to criticize it?
Nope. Just a dumb guy trying to make sound smartlike.
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[–]MadcowPSAScience Fiction 1 point 4 months ago
I don't get it either, honestly. That's how I speak in conversation, and I've never been accused of pedantry or "trying too hard" before. In general, I simply try to use the phrasing that most precisely conveys my intended meaning. I'd probably chalk right1989's comment up to the tendency of some people to attack others personally as retaliation for daring voice an opinion they disagree with.
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[–]souldad57 0 points 4 months ago
Are you new to Reddit Cow? Don't bother trying to make a serious, well constructed point. Puerile puns are the lingua franca here.
Reddit reminds me of the movie Idiocracy, in which you would be accused of "talking like a fag".
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[–]icewatera 2 points 4 months ago
It's like she dumped a thesaurus into her novels. Good thing she wasn't around for Shift+F7.
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[–]WTS_BRIDGE 2 points 4 months ago
I greatly enjoyed the article op shared. That being said, I have a great deal of trouble separating the written from the writer.
Not only is she pedantic;
I found her prose to be long-winded, pedantic and haughty and to have a dogged tendency to belabor any point -- whether narrative or philosophical
but also she seriously could not separate her offensive message from her crude medium. Seriously, she had no gift for allegory whatsoever.
Maybe it's just that I find the writing so poor, or the philosophy so overt, but I always have trouble deciding what it is I so dislike about Swine Raynd.
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[–]dmightypuck 1 point 4 months ago
I assumed that MadcowPSA was simply attempting to provide some irony. Apparently that's not the case. Just to make sure I wasn't off base, I ran the response past an English professor and she said, "you can definitely make the argument the writing is at least pedantic and haughty. It's also decent writing, but the person probably knows it."
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[–]MadcowPSAScience Fiction 3 points 4 months ago
Well, I certainly didn't intend to engage in any pedantry. It really is just the way I speak and write. It's true as anything that when I use uncommon words to communicate my point I do it solely because I feel the phrasing I use is the best, most precise way to represent the ideas I'm trying to articulate. I feel intent is a big part of being pedantic; one isn't being a pedant, as far as I'm concerned, if the intent isn't to be flashy/showy with one's vocabulary or to use it to sound more impressive/knowledgeable. Those things certainly weren't my intent.
As for hauteur, I haven't much to offer except the assurance that I didn't intend to exhibit any. Again, just employing the means I felt were most appropriate to convey my intended meaning.
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[–]cthulhubert 3 points 4 months ago
Relevant XKCD
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[–]Gatelys_Charges 2 points 4 months ago
My moral philosophy is founded on the idea that there is an objective reality, and that man’s senses can perceive this objective reality. This faculty, which is man’s reason, is paramount above all else. He takes for evidence only his own experience, his own judgment, and that is why I do not hesitate to say, objectively, definitively, that “Caddyshack” is the year’s best movie.
That made my day, even though I never like agreeing with Rand, even the fake ones.
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[–]needs_moar 1 point 4 months ago
I was named after Ayn Rand (parents just liked the sound of the name), though because my last name also starts with an "R", it makes it really difficult to comment on political blogs when my handle is "Ayn R"...
Sigh and don't get me started on people trying to correct the own pronunciation of my name....
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[–]Shaneypants 2 points 4 months ago
How do you pronounce it? I've heard it pronounced just like 'Anne' and I've also heard people say 'ein' (with the vowel sound like 'eye').
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[–]needs_moar 3 points 4 months ago
Ein or Eye-Yin.
Lots of ppl pronounce it "Anne" at first, it's just the ppl that continue to call me "Anne" because they honestly think I got the pronunciation of my own name incorrect that really piss me off.
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[–]hoory 2 points 4 months ago
I've always understand to sound like 'ein'. In fact I remember reading once that she would joke that her name rhymed with 'swine'.
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[–]rhetormagician 2 points 4 months ago
I heard from one of her admirers that it's "rhymes with mine." But I like yours better.
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[–]mmmbleach 2 points 4 months ago
Holy crap she was funny. I can see why so many people are seduced by her.
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[–]Bossman5000 15 points 4 months ago
Those weren't her words.
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[–]mmmbleach 4 points 4 months ago
Oh shit! I swear I am not normally this gullible. I would like to think I would have caught it if I had read the whole thing. I should have caught it anyway. At least now I can go back to making gagging noises every time someone mentions Ayn Rand.
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[–]Bossman5000 7 points 4 months ago
I started out believing it too. I thought to myself, "Ah, the old gal developed a sense of humor about herself at the end of her life, how charming!"
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[–]mariox19 1 point 4 months ago
You're too kind. My first thought was: This is why we don't go top-level!!!
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[–]perdit 1 point 4 months ago |
