To: Keith Hankin who wrote (17469 ) 2/13/1998 3:07:00 PM From: Daniel Schuh Respond to
Thanks, Keith. As usual, I can't resist an amusing excerp, or 2 or 3 for that matter.Because her antipathy toward big government was epitomized by her hatred of communism, she was a favorite target of liberal-left intellectuals of the time. But she also developed a deeply committed following, especially among students; her work, and "The Fountainhead" in particular, can be an enormously influential and formative book if read at the right age, i.e., in high school or college, when its combination of fiercely held principles and unbridled lust has seemed like the Truth to countless impressionable readers. So far, so good. But the late '40s, beginning with her friendly testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, saw the now-famous Rand come to represent a political flashpoint for many ideologues, and pic doesn't effectively place her in the context of the time vis-a-vis traditional conservatives, many of whom she rejected, and other thinkers. Even moreso, film breezes over her nearly two-decades-long involvement with her chief acolyte-proselytizer Nathaniel Branden; for any details on this exceedingly complex and ultimately desultory mental and physical affair with a man 25 years her junior, for which Rand demanded the consent of her husband and Branden's wife, one must consult the revealing and insightful Rand biography written by the latter, Barbara Branden. But even on the most elementary level, the picture refuses to analyze Rand's emotional or personal life; it covers her treatment of her husband, the loyal but ineffectual O'Connor, with kid gloves, and doesn't note how she always had to be the dominant personality in any situation, be it an intimate relationship or a social occasion with her coterie of young admirers. is John Galt!". Maybe it should be, "Bill Gates is Ayn Rand!" Though Bill actually seems altogether more pleasant, I can't see this woman singing "Twinkle, Twinkle little star" for Barabara Walters, and F. Scott Fitzgerald doesn't seem to be a literary taste that would suit this kind of personality well. Among the many things I can give Bill credit for, he is focused, I can't imagine he'd get caught up in this kind of personal melodramatics.
