Aynal Retention
Didn't get anough Randiana in our very special Randfest? Some highlights from around the web today:
At NPR, Reason's own Nick Gillespie assesses Rand's fans and foes.
At Cato, David Boaz considers how out of time Rand was when she first showed up.
At Mises.org, Rod Long sizes up Rand's contribution.
At The New York Times, Edward Rothstein calls Rand the last romantic. (Dig the weirdly Nathan Greene-esque accompanying picture.)
Here's a comic strip demonstrating something slightly below Randian supergenius.
Today is also the birthday of James Joyce, whose place at the top of many greatest-ever lists is a source of constant ire for Randians. Here's my countersmackdown.
Speaking of which, the city fathers of St. Petersburg are about half a century behind their Dublin counterparts in exploiting the commercial and tourist potential of the city's most famous literary daughter. If there's any Rand stuff going on in Petrograd today, I wasn't able to find it. In fact, the most recent Rand mention I see in a local paper is from 1998. From beyond the grave, Rand has been punishing her hometown with what one very meticulous paper calls the city's 297th flood.
Happy Aynday.
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Happy Aynday.
The correct term is “Randmas.”
So which is the tougher book to get through, “Atlas Shrugged,” or “Finegan’s Wake”? (For me it’s a toss-up.)
Egad, Walsh. Atlas Shrugged is repetitive. Finnegan’s Wake is something else altogether. Wake wins hands down there. It goes right up there with “The Sound and the Fury”.
Actually “Finnegan” is the only book I’ve ever read that made more sense when I was drunk…
Ha! That Sluggy Freelance storyline was a classic.
Kiki the ferret ends up possessed by Ayn Rand’s ghost and convinces Bill Gates to set up a Galt’s Gulch-like spot in the Grand Canyon. It all ends when they convince Ayn Rand’s ghost that, since the existence of ghosts is irrational, she can’t possibly exist, and she’s gone in a poof of logic. Then it turns out that the swarm of tanks that convinced Gates to run in the first place weren’t from the government but instead just angry Linux users demanding refunds on unused software.
Too bad SF went down the tube after the whole new house/Ally going nuts/oh that wasn’t Ally thing. It used to be the best comic on the web.
No no! The finest Ayn-Rand-related cartoon is surely “Charles Atlas Shrugged” from the now-long-defunct Brunching Shuttlecocks:
http://www.brunching.com/charlesatlas.html
In case you didn’t see this earlier (I posted this link in the very first Ayn Rand thread from last week right before it slipped deep beneath the surface of H&R), you should check it out.
A very quick retelling of The Fountainhead.
http://jeffcomp.com/faq/parody/
Now Joyce is a man whose works are worth reading. I’ve suckled at the teet of his prose for nearly two decades.
I will not serve that in which I no longer believe whether it call itself home, my fatherland or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile, and cunning.
James Joyce, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
The theory of history that informs Finnegan’s Wake was the brainchild of Giambattista Vico.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Vico
I always suggest the edited version of Finnegan’s Wake by Anthony Burgess for the first pass through the text. Before you read Ulysses read Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.
Whoost johngalt, johngalt, johngalt, eh. Oin the lighttebbins, Eddie Willers couldn dispeer the vis o the cold bum, the cold mad bum, the cold mad feary bum. Anna bums espression Eddie couldn see, tho, it made him therrble therrble unease, and seasilt saltsick, all. Like it were about to bringabout the stoppin o the moter o the world. Skuppitah skuppitah skuppitah CHOONK. O brake, break! And thered be no stoppin of the stoppin. Unstoppible stop. Lff!
— Atlas’ Wake
what’s the randian objection to joyce?
dhex,
The Randroids I’ve talked to on the matter state that Joyce’s prose is mere “gibberish” and that he’s a Platonist at heart.
oh.
so they’re sort of like marxists, in that moral or social configurations of the artist come before the art itself?
dhex,
No. In fact, Rand’s favorite author was Victor Hugo, if that tells you anything. (her morality being quite opposed to his, that is.)
hum.
curiouser and curiouser.
wellfellow,
Yes, but Les Miserables features a heroic capitalist.
dhex,
I think you are in part correct; but Rand (nor Marxists) was never exactly consistent in these sorts of matters. Art to Randians has to be – in order to meet the proper aesthetic form – “rational.”
isn’t rational art called politics?
what’s the randian objection to joyce?
That Ulysses typically gets the top spot on lists of the greatest novels of the twentieth century-a spot they believe should belong to Atlas Shrugged. (In fact, Rand was entirely absent from the Modern Library’s notorious Hot 100.) However, it looks like Ayn Joyce above has brilliantly found a solution to this seemingly insoluble problem.
Tim Cavanaugh,
Was the survey that set Atlas Shrugged in second place after the Bible a real survey/poll?
Tim,
I answered my own question:
http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/books/rand/atlas/faq.html
No one knows exactly how influential Atlas Shrugged is, because there has never been a proper study done to check. The “second most influential” claim comes from a Survey of Lifetime Reading Habits conducted in 1991 by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Library of Congress. Printed surveys were sent to members of the Club, asking them what books had most influenced their own lives. A little over 2,000 responses were received. The Bible ranked first, and Atlas Shrugged ranked a distant second. Because the survey targeted an audience of book lovers (members of the Club) and an active effort was required to mail in a response, it is likely that the results were skewed towards people who were influenced especially strongly by a particular book. Such a result cannot be reliably interpreted as reflecting the entire US population, although enthusiastic promoters of the novel sometimes make such claims. (The survey is also often inaccurately described as a “poll” or “study,” and various incorrect sources are cited for it.)
Similar concerns affect a more recent list to an even greater degree. In 1998, book publisher Random House ran an online vote asking readers to name the “best” English-language novels of the 20th century. Atlas Shrugged placed first in this vote, with Rand’s other novels placing high on the list as well. However, there was a considerable amount of campaigning by special-interest groups to promote particular authors and books. There were also only limited controls to prevent repeat voting and other “ballot stuffing” techniques. In the end, the results probably reflected the intensity of feeling among the most highly motived voters as much or more than the breadth of support for any of the top vote-getters.
Because of the limitations of these surveys, some critics attack them as “invalid” or “unscientific,” but that isn’t entirely accurate. The survey results are legitimate as long as one understands their biases and limitations. They reflect the strength of influence that the books listed have had on the specific groups involved in the surveys. What is invalid and unscientific is to attempt to generalize the findings beyond those groups without accounting for the skewed participation.
I am lauging my f-ing ass off at Stevo “Ayn Joyce”. That was awesome.
Danka!
You know, I haven’t ever actually read Finnegan’s Wake, except for a few excerpts. But I went back and looked at a few Webbed pages, and they are exactly in the style I use when I overdo it at a happy hour, then walk back to the office to bang out an e-mail to a girl (which I fortunately never actually send). I just had to get into that same sort of frame of mind.
Hey, know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see Strong Bad, who does the “Teen Girl Squad” Flash cartoons you may have seen on the Web, take on Atlas Shrugged.
THE A = A TEAM!!!!
– Idealman!
– Railroad Girl!
– Moocher!
– The Other One!
———————
Moocher: I need to take all your stuff for the common good.
Railroad Girl: I will have to work harder then.
Idealman: I swear I will not live my life for the sake of any purpose other than my own, nor shall I ask another to live his life for me.
———————
MOTORSTOPPED!!!!!!!!
———————
Idealman: This is John Galt speaking. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
———————
Idealman: Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
——————–
Moocher: My world is wrecked!
———————
IT’S OVER!!!!!!!!!!
Daaaaaaaaaaaa….
I was raised by a cup of coffee.