Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words


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Saw this on Netflix a couple nights ago. Amazing!

I did a search on OL to see if this topic had been brought up but I didn't see anything specific to this. I'm sure there is, but I might have messed up, so I hope I'm not starting something that's already got its own thread.

I really, really liked this. I had seen a few clips of her interviews from the early days to Phil Donahue's. Her poise during all the questions was remarkable. She always had that glint in her eyes that spoke of tremendous intellect and thought processes. I smiled as she would sometimes answer questions with questions to put it in perspective to the interviewer, as if they didn't ask the right question.

To hear her talk about her childhood enabled me to get to know her a bit as a person. There's always a turning point in your life when you "know", and you get it straight from the source about what makes them tick. I think it's an extremely unique experience when someone as famous and world-moving as Ayn gives you a glimpse in that regard. So many historical figures don't resonate as strongly for me simply because they are pages in history. Seeing is believing...

I also enjoyed hearing her talk about Frank, how they first met, and how she went out of her way during the filming to get stepped on...haha!! It was quite a love story.

Most of all, I really admire the pains she took to get her books right. When asked what she was first, philosopher or writer, she answered "both" because I don't think you can really separate the two. I have the same hesitation with wanting to write because I don't have it all pinned down yet. Not enough to make a compelling book. I have some pretty good ideas, but would do them injustice if I didn't have my philosophical foundation set.

Not only that, she was a looker back in the day. Damn! Some of the pictures left me a little stunned...ha! Beauty and brains... what a combo!

~ Shane

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Not only that, she was a looker back in the day. Damn! Some of the pictures left me a little stunned...ha! Beauty and brains... what a combo!

~ Shane

Ayn Rand a “looker”? How would she have reacted to that?

From Facets of Ayn Rand:

MARY ANN:

Ayn had beautiful legs. She knew it, and showed them off in high heels and sheer stockings. She especially liked platform shoes because they added to her height. There was a store on 57th Street she frequented because they had a good selection of platforms when no one else did. In the seventies, when high platforms with thick, high heels were in style again, she was delighted and bought a pair. But they were clunky and difficult to walk in; she sprained her ankle and had to stop wearing them, much to her disappointment.

CHARLES:

If I may, I’d like to interject here with an anecdote about her legs. A group of her friends met at the O’Connors’ apartment one evening to watch an interview show she had taped earlier. When it was over, she asked us for our reactions. I don’t remember the specific comments, but everyone was complimentary about her performance. When we finished with our remarks, she asked if that was all. We were, to a person, perplexed. What else was there to say? She then said that she was disappointed that no one had a comment about how good her legs looked! It’s not that none of us noticed them—I certainly did. I think we all thought her focus on the show was strictly intellectual. As it turned out, someone at the TV studio had commented on her good-looking legs, much to her pleasure.

They all thought she did a great job defending her views on an intellectual level, but all she cared about was how her legs looked.

She would have looked fantastic in the 'legs chair' on FOX’s Red Eye (the only reason I watch).

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Probably her second Carson appearance.

I saw her several times on Carson and The Les Crane Show in the 1960's, and I honestly have to admit I don't remember anything about her legs. Of course, I was an innocent young teenager at the time. I'm a lot more perverted now than I was way back then. :cool:

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Can you imagine knowing her when she was about 16 years of age? I know there was a single picture of her in a book whose name I don't recall where she appeared to be about that age. I thought that she was stunning. To think that she lived through the nightmare of totalitarian bolshevik communism! In the end tens of millions of ordinary people were murdered and all their property stolen by the State!

Has anyone read "I Chose Freedom" by Victor Kravchenko? He lived through it also and worked his way up as an engineer up to the Kremlin. He saw the collectivization of the Kulaks and paints a picture of a dairy farmer having to endure his children starving because the milk from what was once his own cow had to be sent to be churned into butter at the State factory and exported to the West to demonstrate to the world that communism and socialism worked so well that they could export butter. Fortunately Ayn Rand was able to persuade a bureaucrat that she would return from a visit to relatives in Chicago so she was let go never to return.

On a more somber note, if Obama gets re elected then our grandchildren may find themselves in a more modern socialist utopia from which no escape will be feasible.

Ayn Rand once asked a classmate what was the most important thing to her and was turned off when the girl responded, "My mother!" One can imagine her asking you that question if and when you were a classmate of hers and wonder what response would have turned her on!

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Shane,

Yes, Walter and I also thought the film was quite interesting and well done.

Looking forward to this work by Shoshana Milgram. She has finished all the research and is now doing the writing.

If you google the following:

"ayn rand in her own words" +"objectivist living"

you will be led to the other thread.

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Ayn Rand a “looker”? How would she have reacted to that?

I dare say that if any woman could have made me turn red in response to my comment, it would be her. As you quoted, most focus on her intellectually. I try to think of people as a total package.

Very interesting that she would try to get others to notice that, too.

~ Shane

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Shane,

Yes, Walter and I also thought the film was quite interesting and well done.

Looking forward to this work by Shoshana Milgram. She has finished all the research and is now doing the writing.

If you google the following:

"ayn rand in her own words" +"objectivist living"

you will be led to the other thread.

Got it. Thanks! And Google now has this one...

~ Shane

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