jenright

First, thank you, Barbara. Onto my full confessions: I own a print of Diminishing Returns, too. And I like Parrish too, thought not quite as much as my wife does. As for Rand, she spoke harshly of the surrealists, and of Dali in particular, but her favorite painting was by Dali, the surrealist. She seemed to see Dali as puzzling, perhaps partly because she hated many of his paintings, but absolutely loved at least one. If an artist's paintings project his sense of life, how could one artist project 2 different senses of life? I think her answer is that the artist's vision was conflicted, and different sides of the conflict got painted at different times. Also on the topic of surrealism, has anyone taken a good look at Capuletti's work? A lot of his work looks a bit surrealistic - jarring dreamlike visions portrayed with halluncinatory clarity. But not all his work is like that. I think he moves away from it over time. John

You can easily spin a tale about "Diminishing Returns" that goes like this: Forbidding, malevolent landscape devoid of life. Man reduced to a wooden figurine manipulated by outside forces. His nihilistic amusement of breaking Christmas ornaments - an outrageous attack on the holiday of benevolence. A truly mystical defiance of causality, endowing a cloud, mere water vapor, with godlike attributes. In sum a surrealistic attack on all values - it should be called Diminishing Life. You could easily do something similar with her all-time favorite painting, which was by Dali, and involved a crucifixion. Some of her followers have done a lot of stuff like this, with great self-assurance of the objectivity of their interpretations. Some of them fixed on Maxfield Parrish as the great benevolent painter, and were disappointed when she, curiously enough, dismissed Parrish as "trash." I'm not sure that Rand ever spent much time interpreting paintings in print - with the exception of her appreciative discussion of Capuletti. I actually think her taste in painting remains somewhat unanalyzed.

Phil, thanks. The poem has a funny story behind it. I wrote the first 8 lines in the 70's, and always felt it needed a second half, but could never quite write it. Then the last 6 lines came in 2003, including the metaphor you are so fond of. John

About "Man Also Rises," which graced the cover of The Fountainhead for a while... I've never heard why it got pulled. Publishers do periodically fiddle with covers, of course. And you can see where she might think the reference to the painting, in the introduction, might mystify new readers once the cover changed. I was standing near her once when someone was brought to her and introduced to her this way: "This is so and so, his favorite painting is 'Man Also Rises.'" She lit up with the 100-watt smile and said something like "Then we have something important in common." (Horribly inexact quotes, 30 years later.) As for "Diminishing Returns," when it was being sold as a print it was described as playful. There was said to be a set of images of the artist reflected in the ornaments, but the last ornament held no reflection because the artist had finished the painting and left the room. The wispy cloud overhead has stolen some of the ornaments. In other words, it's just some inanimate objects having a darn good time, with a little self-referential reflection. I'm not insisting on this interpretation, just relaying it. John

Tooting horn to announce shameless self promotion... A lot of Objectivists like my poems, a fair number of which are love poems, like this one: There are so many enemies of love - Suspicion, hurt, embarrassment, and fear Begin the dusty list. Yet somehow men and women rise above Hostilities to hold each other dear, All obstacles dismissed. It may seem soft and dumb, like some sweet dove, But underneath its eagle claws appear - Difficult to resist. I have a new book of poems available, and the download version is free here. Also, I came across an ancient Egyptian love poem today, 3000 years old, it starts like this: She is one girl, there is no one like her. She is more beautiful than any other. Look, she is like a star goddess arising at the beginning of a happy new year; The rest is here. John Enright

Does anyone still have George Walsh's announcement that he was resigning from the board of advisors of TIA? I believe it was sent out as a separate sheet with one mailing of TIA. (He quit over the Kelley affair.)

Robert Bidinotto's wife is Cynthia Bidinotto-Slate. In the background of the picture with Barbara, Kat, and Michael, you can see Caroline Johnson. Fran, thank you for posting these. John

Surely it's a pity That Roark had no such committee.

If I understand your question, I would say that you should use both kinds of words in a play. In everyday speech we mostly use short, German-root, words. In formal and intellectual speech we favor longer Latin-root and Greek-root words. John

Just so no one misses dragonfly's witty allusion: "Look on the branch above your head, and you'll find a Snap-dragon-fly. Its body is made of plum-pudding, its wings of holly-leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in brandy. Crawling at your feet, you may observe a Bread-and-butter-fly. Its wings are thin slices of bread-and-butter, its body is a crust, and its head a lump of sugar....' " Alice Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

Thank you Jordan. I see I missed a favorable comment from Fred Seddon from months ago, so thank you, Fred, too! John

Do we get to vote for favorite lines? These are mine.

Never shall I bash The late, great, Ogden Nash.

Who was the hacker - What vile attacker Is responsible for giving Grief to Objectivist Living? Is this site On somebody's list Of things that, by right, Shouldn't exist? Will no one step forward To accept the blame? Your behavior is horrid, But what is your name?

Must be love.

They had an idea that art had taken a wrong turn with Raphael. Wikipedia: "They believed that the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on academic teaching of art. Hence the name 'Pre-Raphaelite'." If someone already answered this and it got lost in the hack attack, I apologize. John

I'm out of the loop and behind on the scoop. I hadn't even realized that Calopteryx/ROR = dragonfly/OL! (Alas I have revealed my ignorance of latinate insect nomenclature.) But I did want to say that if I see a post by Ellen, my eyes go right to it. John

Rich, just in case you're interested in the detail of how Kelley broke out pre, post, and just plain modernity, here's an essay he wrote that goes into it: http://www.cato.org/research/articles/kelley-0306.html John

I think this goes to Peikoff's DIM hypothesis, which I gather attempts to explain outlooks on life as falling into one of 3 families: Disintegraton, like skeptics and nihilists Integration, like scientists and Objectivists Misintegration, like religious conservatives At a very high level, it is a little bit like Kelley's analysis of 3 American cultures at war: Postmodern, like skeptics and nihilists Enlightenment/Modern, like scientists and Objectivists Premodern, like religious conservatives Maybe we should call it the PEP hypothesis. The details are different. The idea of Integration as a virtue seems to combine the following: 1) Consistency - not accepting contradictions 2) Willing to generalize 3) Only willing to generalize in accordance with reality Misintegrators are willing to generalize, but try to include fantasy elements, and end up contradicting themselves covertly. Disintegrators say "never say never", decline to affirm generalizations, and shrug off contradictions. I'm going by memory of things I've heard people say. I have not listened to Peikoff's DIM lecture yet, so take all this with a grain of salt. John

Barbara, yes, I'm very much like that. And you're right that it doesn't always need to be a full poem. Just a phrase might do, if it rings true. John

I have noooo idea whether Ayn Rand would have liked this poem. Her artistic tastes were difficult to predict. She liked some of Kipling, Swinburne, and Alexandr Blok. Putting the inscrutable tastes of A.R. aside, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

It was just a passing thought in response to your very interesting essay. Prufrock does seem to live in a dreary world, doesn't he, while always dreaming of a dramatic one.

I'm not sure the talk of Michelangelo is talk of trivia. I think, rather, it's talk of grandeur that poor Prufrock can't live up to. He is not David, nor was meant to be. Just my take. Interesting essay! John

You're very welcome, Ellen.

> me to Connecticut, her to the Chicago area, and all that) and have heard nothing further about Plaisil from anyone else. Googling leads me to believe they are now in your state. John