Ron Merrill died a while back. He dedicated
The Ideas of Ayn Rand to Yoon, his wife. She is now married to Adam Reed. Here is a
small post by Reed on his history with them. Reed keeps an Internet site of Merrill's works online. The link is hard to find, but I just did some serious digging and found it again.
Ron Merrill ArchiveThere is an interesting review of Merrill's book by Stephen Hicks at The Atlas Society called
Big Game, Small Gun?Here are a few quotes I found exceptionally charming so far:
On Rand's predominant theme in all her literature (p. 15):
QUOTE(Merrill)
The constant thread which runs through all of her work is the problem of the moral individual trapped in an evil society.
On general types of literary fiction themes and Rand (p. 19):
QUOTE(Merrill)
Any serious fiction is centered on a conflict within the central protagonist. What can be the source of this conflict? Roughly speaking—there are of course many exceptions!—one might make the following generalization. In the eighteenth century, novels tended to focus on "manners" as a source of conflict: the hero wants to do something, but the dictates of custom forbid it. In the nineteenth century the conflict tends to be moral in nature: the hero wants to do something, but his moral principles forbid it. In the twentieth century, the conflict tends to be psychological: the hero wants to do something, but is incapable because of his neurotic problems. In this analysis, Rand is quite definitely a nineteenth century writer rather than a twentieth century writer, in that the focus of her books is on moral issues rather than psychological problems.
On Rand getting Kant-hatred from Nietzsche (p. 22):
QUOTE(Merrill)
... Nietzsche viewed himself as leading the opposition to one of history's most influential philosophers, Immanuel Kant. Nietzsche accused Kant of attempting to set limits to the validity of reason as a means of rescuing Christian, altruistic morality. He agreed with Kant that reason and altruism were incompatible. Unlike Kant, he was prepared to jettison religion and altruism, so Nietzsche rejected Kant's attack on reason. Rand adopted this view of Kant as her own, and never abandoned it. Like Nietzsche , to the end of her life she considered Kant her intellectual arch-enemy.
On Nietzsche and egoism (p. 24):
QUOTE(Merrill)
Let it not be thought, however, that Nietzsche was an advocate of egoism. His concern was with the welfare of the race more than of the individual. This was at the root of his concept of "superman."
On Nietzsche's influence on Rand as regards intellectual and moral growth (p. 26):
QUOTE(Merrill)
More subtle but still detectable in its influence on Rand's work is Nietzsche's belief that intellectual and moral growth is inherently painful and indeed cruel. His view is that self-improvement involves not only effort but suffering—a sort of intellectual "no pain no gain" principle. The theme is recurrent throughout Nietzsche's work.
(...)
In spite of her [Rand's] emphasis on the "benevolent universe premise," she never completely lost the conviction that to grow and improve oneself is painful, that one must not be stopped by the pain, and that to assist others means, in a sense, to be cruel to them.
Nietzsche, Rand and sense of life (p. 40):
QUOTE(Merrill)
Just as Aristotle taught her logic and metaphysics, so Nietzsche provided Rand with the root of her sense of life, the emphasis on achievement, on aspiration, on pursuing supremely important values. It is to her credit that she was able to clear away the debris of his ethical monstrosities and keep what was good as she built Objectivism.
The Fountainhead and Roark's thematic/dramatic role (p. 46):
QUOTE(Merrill)
... from the point of view of literary technique, problems arise in writing a story about an "ideal person." To use the central character who is morally perfect makes it difficult to center the story on an internal moral conflict. Adopting a hero who has no psychological problems rules out centering the story on psychological conflict. Thus when we encounter an "ideal" hero, the story usually involves a basic dilemma of some less fundamental sort, such as a physical challenge.
Rand resolved this problem in The Fountainhead by removing Roark from the lead role. In the novel as it exists, Roark is "offstage" for over half of the book. Instead, Dominique Francon becomes the real protagonist. The plot-theme of the book now becomes something different: "How would imperfect people react to the ideal man?" This makes it possible to center the plot on a moral conflict within Dominique—and, later in the book, Gail Wynand.
Themes in
The Fountainhead(pp. 46-47):
QUOTE(Merrill)
For, on this level, The Fountainhead is a novel about the sin of despair. Though Rand would no doubt have been horrified to hear it thus described, the book has a theme prominent in Christian theology. Hope (as in "faith, hope, and charity") is a virtue in Christian doctrine because its antithesis, despair, leads one to feel that it is permissible to sin. If evil is destined to inevitable triumph, why struggle to achieve virtue? This is precisely the fundamental premise of Dominique and Wynand. Having despaired, not believing that good can triumph, they permit themselves to do evil. Wynand uses his "power" to exalt the banal in human existence, and to crush men who show signs of integrity. Dominique wastes her talents and, like Wynand, leaves a trail of agony behind her, as she does her best to destroy that which she most values, from statues, to Roark, to her own soul.
On still another level, The Fountainhead deals with the twin issues of independence and integrity. Rand's unification of these two virtues is not sufficiently appreciated. One of her objectives in the novel is to show that independence, in the end, must mean intellectual independence. The man who allows others to tell him what to think, thereby allows others to tell him what to do.
Dominique Francon:
QUOTE(Merrill)
To paraphrase one of Rand's favorite quotations from Aristotle, one might describe Dominique as a neurotic—not as neurotics are, but as they should be.
LOL. That's all for now. I am duly charmed.
Michael