jenright

Ellen, you might have forgotten these references. I highlighted the key word: "The sex views professed by Women's Lib are so hideous that they cannot be discussed—at least, not by me. To regard man as an enemy—to regard woman as a combination matriarch and stevedore—to surpass the futile sordidness of a class war by instituting a sex war—to drag sex into politics and around the floor of smoke-filled back rooms, as a tool of the pressure-group jockeying for power- to proclaim spiritual sisterhood with lesbians, and to swear eternal hostility to men—is so repulsive a set of premises from so loathsome a sense of life that an accurate commentary would require the kind of language I do not like to see in print." Age of Envy "Women's Lib joins a common front with lesbians and prostitutes, but its individual members are treated as respectable women. Yet a rightist is regarded as disreputable because the leader of an organization he may have addressed, later joined the John Birch Society." Disfranchisement of the Right

Robert, Thanks for your thoughts - and links! - on Greg S. He does look like an influential person in this particular meeting of minds. I suppose you're right, that this nacho-libre fighting violates common standards of scholarly decorum, and would threaten one's professional standing. John

Robert, could you propose a reason why Greg S. might prefer to remain Mysterious on Diana H.'s blog comments? I mean, he is not running "stealth" as an Objectivist. Am I missing something? Thanks, John

Mike H. is correct. "Excommunicant" is also acceptable.

George Walsh was asked whether he thought Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony sounded malevolent. He said: "Of course. Can't you just hear the sheep gnashing their teeth?"

I'm not sure you've noted the eliding of NB from the "Introduction to Ninety-Three" in RM. The following paragraph is edited out: "The briefest summary of the difference between the Romantic school of literature and the school that took over in the later decades of the nineteenth century is given by Nathaniel Branden in his book Who Is Ayn Rand?, in a passage dealing with my own literary method. Mr. Branden writes: 'Contrast the heroic sense of life projected in the novels of the great Romanticist, Victor Hugo, with the sordid and doomed sense of life conveyed in the novels of the arch-Naturalist, Emile Zola. Consider the literary means by which each writer's sense of life is projected. Where Hugo builds purposeful plot, Zola unravels calamitous contingency; where Hugo dramatizes the conflict of crucial values, Zola describes the horror of torpid depravity; where Hugo delineates characters in terms of their fundamental motivation, Zola lingers on the surface of accidental, journalistic minutiae,; where Hugo presents life as exciting and man as a giant, Zola presents life as futility and man as a pygmy; where Hugo sees literature as artistic creation, Zola sees literature as history - Police Gazette history.'"

Jonathan writes: She had developed a particular dislike for the other woman he in fact preferred. In her notes to herself, she seems to say that she could accept being passed over for some other woman, but could never accept being passed over by this particular woman.

Outside of Objectivist terminology, "psychologize", "moralize", and "rationalize" can all be used neutrally. So "psychologize" can just mean: 1. To explain behavior in psychological terms. 2. To investigate, reason, or speculate in psychological terms. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionar...om/psychologize Robert brings up the fact that she engaged in amateur psychological counseling of friends, but then advised against doing so. The "psychologizing" article came after the counseling efforts, so I wonder if the advice was the bitter fruit of a lesson learned. John

Saul, yes, lots of representational art has abstract meaning, despite showing concrete things. Non-objective "abstract" art, paradoxically enough, seems to carry less abstract meaning. John

Tolerance without love is tolerable. But love without tolerance is miserable.

I agree about the value of tolerance in romance and family life. I had never thought about the different groups of Objectivists as actually having different marriage survival rates - or different degrees of parent/child appreciation. It's an intriguing point. -John

Charles, are you suggesting that tolerance makes for longer marriages? -John

Jody, speaking The Lady Of Shalott, in case you haven't heard it, there's a nice song version by Loreena McKennitt you might possibly enjoy. I must warn she left a few of the stanzas out in the recording we heard. -John

The inset painting is by Frank O'Connor.

Phil, I agree, that Phoenix piece is uninspired. I merely thought it was intellectually interesting as a rough speculation of where the arms might have gone. But spiritually it looks like it belongs on a badly designed Mormon temple.

Jody and Kat, thanks for all the additional information and images. I like the pre-Raphaelite painters, but I don't know them that well. Keats' poem is simply gorgeous, and is way up there on my list.

Jody, thanks for posting this. I hadn't looked at in a while, and I enjoyed seeing it again. As you probably know, there's a poem by Keats with the same name. It exists in a couple of versons. One is here. http://www.bartleby.com/126/55.html I have to admit I don't know if there's any direct connection between the poem and the painting, but they seem to go together to me. John

Michael, thank you. As regards air and water, I wonder if the sculptor thought of wings as corresponding to sails. Phil, I agree, it's best to see it in real life. It has a most dramatic setting in the Louvre. By the way, here is somebody's idea of what the original pose was when she still had her head and arms: http://bayimages.net/phoenix/downtown/i5453.html

Richard mentions the movie, so I just want to say that it is filmed so that each frame looks like a Vermeer painting - luminous. I don't know how they did that, but it was a striking effect.

Like JennaW's statue of Cupid and Psyche, it's at the Louvre. The statue's pedestal is a ship's prow. It's thought to have been commissioned in honor of an ancient naval victory. Her body's badly battered But her soul has not been shattered, And she strides across the ocean With a bold triumphal motion, With wings spread out behind her In a feathery reminder That the power of joyous flight Belongs to those who fight For what is good and true. When victory comes to you Your heart will rise with pride And you'll feel those wings inside.

The way it looked at the time, and the way George recounted it later, George chose to leave.

Thank you, Michael and Barbara.

Thanks, Kat. This painting already had a book and movie named after it. So I figured it could use a poem too.

A turban-wearing girl With an earring made of pearl Looks out with shining eyes With a glance of sweet surprise As if she's glad you're there And you wonder if her hair When finally unbound Could match the beauty found In the sparkle of her gaze In the glory of the rays Of sun that bathe the girl With an earring made of pearl.

Michael, maybe if the child-starver was autistic...