Why I Admire Ayn Rand as a Human Being

[caroljane]

She grew up in the real world, the cruelest, most unjust part of the world at the time, already wounded by personal injustices, and escaped to Hollywood. She worked and suffered, not just through her early tribulations but all her life, to create a world, both fictional and real, where valiant spirits such as hers could simply be free.

She didn't like cummings, but she "lived her soul", as did his father. She took what she valued and rejected what she did not. She loved deeply, rejecting pain, and when she found her ideal reader and hero, she took him as her lover and equal.

She liked to quote in part the Spanish proverb, "take what you want, and pay for it." She paid.

The full proverb is usually rendered, "Take what you want, and pay for it, says God."

There is no God, so the payment continues unto the 10th generation.

There's another quote that comes to my mind here, as I think of this unique and fascinating woman. I forget the author but I know it's an American novelist, maybe John O'Hara?

"When you have the guts to be yourself, other people will pay your price."

[Roger Bissell]

She grew up in the real world, the cruelest, most unjust part of the world at the time, already wounded by personal injustices, and escaped to Hollywood. She worked and suffered, not just through her early tribulations but all her life, to create a world, both fictional and real, where valiant spirits such as hers could simply be free.

She didn't like cummings, but she "lived her soul", as did his father. She took what she valued and rejected what she did not. She loved deeply, rejecting pain, and when she found her ideal reader and hero, she took him as her lover and equal.

She liked to quote in part the Spanish proverb, "take what you want, and pay for it." She paid.

The full proverb is usually rendered, "Take what you want, and pay for it, says God."

There is no God, so the payment continues unto the 10th generation.

There's another quote that comes to my mind here, as I think of this unique and fascinating woman. I forget the author but I know it's an American novelist, maybe John O'Hara?

"When you have the guts to be yourself, other people will pay your price."

You got the "John" part right. :-)

The quote is from John Updike's Rabbit Run, and the words are spoken by the novel's protagonist, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.

REB

[caroljane]

She grew up in the real world, the cruelest, most unjust part of the world at the time, already wounded by personal injustices, and escaped to Hollywood. She worked and suffered, not just through her early tribulations but all her life, to create a world, both fictional and real, where valiant spirits such as hers could simply be free.

She didn't like cummings, but she "lived her soul", as did his father. She took what she valued and rejected what she did not. She loved deeply, rejecting pain, and when she found her ideal reader and hero, she took him as her lover and equal.

She liked to quote in part the Spanish proverb, "take what you want, and pay for it." She paid.

The full proverb is usually rendered, "Take what you want, and pay for it, says God."

There is no God, so the payment continues unto the 10th generation.

There's another quote that comes to my mind here, as I think of this unique and fascinating woman. I forget the author but I know it's an American novelist, maybe John O'Hara?

"When you have the guts to be yourself, other people will pay your price."

You got the "John" part right. :-)

The quote is from John Updike's Rabbit Run, and the words are spoken by the novel's protagonist, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.

REB

Thank you! Updike was the first stunning stylist I remember reading as a teenager. Somewhere he described the total contentment of being safe in school, sharpening pencils while snow swirled outside and he wrote an article on "B-ballers Win' for the school paper. It was like Housman--

"This is the land of lost content

I see it shining plain

The happy highways where I went

And cannot come again."

When you're 13 you know nobody could ever know how you feel. But they did.

[PDS]

Daunce: thank you for this mini-essay. I sometimes feel a paternal urge to defend the Ayn Rand who authored the trans-formative books of my youth. She is like a coin in our pocket we have all rubbed too hard. We use her name and ideas so blithely at times, only because of the ease with which a send button can be hit. Good work here.