BLOOD! SKULLS! BONES! PAIN! SMASH!

[annajaneclare]

We now return to the book so awful even I can’t believe it, and I’ve read Defy The Eagle. I like shit books. I genuinely enjoy curling up with a bogawful book as much as I like to read good ones. After all, you can’t tell a good book from a bad one if you’ve only ever read really good books and vice versa. You need to know shit from Shineola if you

Comments

[burkesworks]

I am not going anywhere fucking near Atlas Shrugged

You don't need to. Adam is doing a grand job of fisking it bit-by-bit over here.

[annajaneclare]

Is he insane? Good lord. That thing's a breezeblock sized lump of drivel.

[apiphile]

While I’ve never tried winding up a pitch to a publisher by handing them a DVD of a colonoscopy I have a funny feeling it won’t exactly sway them towards seeing things your way.

*makes a note* I wonder if BLEEDING on my manuscripts would help.

Oh no wait. THAT IS INSANE.

[annajaneclare]

I'm beginning to wonder if the reason Henry Cameron's career faltered was not because his buildings were too daring and new and individual for the socialist philistines but rather because Henry Cameron was BATSHIT INSANE. After all, BATSHIT INSANE is notoriously hard to work with.

[apiphile]

Is it just me or does Rand sound like a stroppy teenager who feels like the world doesn't recognise her INDIVIDUAL GENIUS while the world just rolls its eyes? And her book is basically validating that stance while stamping her feet, and gives solace to everyone else who is clearly just too visionary (and not infact BORING AND SHITE).

[annajaneclare]

It's not just you. I'm told her books are very popular with angry, snotty teenagers.

[cloudtrader]

Ow. Ow. That writing is painful.

[mq_musings]

I managed to get through five years of college (and an English degree) without having to read any Rand. The year before we divorced, my husband, myself, and a friend of ours (his girlfriend, but that's a whole 'nother story) drove five hours to his family's town. He loves audio books, and in an effort to show each other how deep they each were, the ex and gf checked out the audio version of Anthem.

I was in the back seat, trying to sleep. Chapter after chapter of the main character trying to figure out the word he's seen in the ancient text but doesn't understand. And the two in the front seat are all, "what could it possibly be?" And I'm like, "OMG it's I. How have you not noticed he never says 'I'? It's because socialism destroys the individual. Can we turn it off now

[annajaneclare]

If The Fountainhead is a classic then I'm a small but highly literate bantam hen named Marguerite. It's nothing but heavy-handed, ill-written piffle.

I managed to get through five years of college (and an English degree) without having to read any Rand.

Because no English professor in their right mind would ever make you. See above for details.

[mq_musings]

If The Fountainhead is a classic then I'm a small but highly literate bantam hen named Marguerite.

Hm. You know, I really have no proof that you aren't, and that was a mighty specific description...

[annajaneclare]

I have fingers.

[insidian]

A dear friend of mine has posited that if one reads an Ayn Rand book unironically, it will turn one into an unmitigated asshole for at least the next five years.

I wholly subscribe to her theory, based on the fact that every single person who has said the words, "Have you read The Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged/Atlas Head/etc? It is the BEST book! Great ideas!" to me has fit this description. However, I also wonder if there isn't a bit of chicken and egg in the theory; if this is the dreck your soul resonates with ("I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.") then perhaps there is no hope for you until you have matured.

[annajaneclare]

However, I also wonder if there isn't a bit of chicken and egg in the theory; if this is the dreck your soul resonates with ("I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.") then perhaps there is no hope for you until you have matured.

I must admit, I'm baffled as to how Randroids ever become parents. Having kids takes altruism to the next level. You've not only got the thing living in you for nine months but then you've got eighteen years of hard work ahead of you making sure the child grows up to be a pleasant, cheerful human being who replaces the toilet roll on the holder and eats vegetables without too much complaint.

That and the fact that you'd have to be an idiot not to notice that human beings are social primates, not lone tigers. Even before Richard Dawkins nailed it, it was sort of obvious that altruism was hard wired to some degree.

[burkesworks]

I'm baffled as to how Randroids ever become parents.

IVF or cloning I'd guess, bearing in mind that 99.9% of Randroids are spotty omega male sysadmins and the few that don't possess y-chromosomes are invariably like Jackie Mackie Paisley Passey (Google is your friend here; pretty sure that Leonard aka ludickid did the ultimate takedown of her)

[drbunsen]

May I present: Child Rearing The Objectivist Way