Ayn Rand and the World She Made

[BaalChatzaf]

Charles Murray's review of the two recent Rand biographies.

Every good thing he wrote about Rand is true. But still, I cannot quite forgive her for enabling a close-mindedness and quasi-religious cultishness in some of her followers. She permitted herself to become a den mother to damaged people and enabled them in their damage. Shame on her! She knew better.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[9thdoctor]

This just occurred to me out of the blue, it’s pretty silly, but here goes: In Heller’s book she discloses that Ayn Rand’s cat was not neutered, and that the cat used to spray their NY apartment, making the place less welcoming, one might say. I mentioned this in my review, which is somewhere on this thread. In Peikoff’s podcast from a week ago he took a question about her cats, what were their names, did she talk to them…oh brother. One detail he worked in was that Frisco had the nickname “Professor of Epistemology”, this because someone left a modernist painting overnight, and the cat pissed on it. He says that this was the “first and only time” the cat did that. Could it be that Peikoff is responding to the Heller’s revelation? Obliquely calling her a liar, while maintaining that he hasn't and won't read her book? I think a full investigation may be in order, before James Valliant adds this to a second, expanded edition of PARC where he takes on the new biographies. Nip it in the bud, I say.

[kiaer.ts]

We discussed Heller's book in my Russian class today.

[Selene]

We discussed Heller's book in my Russian class today.

Interesting. In what context?

[kiaer.ts]

We discussed Heller's book in my Russian class today.

Interesting. In what context?

I should have said my professor and I. Nabokov, Russian named "Rosin-bomb", St Petersburg, and the quality of translations from the Russian in American publications.

Edited October 20, 2010 by Ted Keer