Backlighting Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 It's been a while since I first read it.What a great story teller she was, among other attributes.PAR is just the tonic I need to start the New Yr.-J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf DeVoon Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Can't guess. What's PAR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden.Incidentally, I need to reread that book for a project I am working on.I look forward to it.Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf DeVoon Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Thanks, Michael. No wonder I couldn't guess. I was coerced into watching the Mirren movie. Nice hatchet job.Based on her relentless pseudo-intellectual posturing, some might find the title “The Passion of Ayn Rand” oxymoronic. Nonetheless, it’s an ambitious, visually sumptuous attempt to depict a bizarre element of a controversial personality’s life... Rand and Branden embraced the homily “The rich are different from you and me” as both a virtue and a life’s philosophy. Ultimately, and inevitably, the film shows that these pitiful souls celebrating a life of the mind were, despite their pretensions, as misguided and messed-up as anyone else. [Variety]Embodied by the perpetually terrific Helen Mirren, Rand is a fascinating, driven demon of a woman, a cruel, egotistical dynamo willing to destroy all those around her... What makes The Passion Of Ayn Rand so simultaneously frustrating and interesting is the way it glamorizes Rand's philosophy while at the same time showing it to be impractical and wrongheaded in practice... spending two hours with two articulate, loathsome people. [A.V. Club] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Wolf,The movie had the same title as the book, but that was about all.Not even the same characters in one glaring case. The idea was to collapse several characters into one, but I don't think it came off too well. The name of the fictional character was Caroline, who was supposed to be Patrecia and several unnamed others (I guess). I think the director just wanted a mouth with a pretty female face and body to murmur boilerplate Hollywood love gushes to Nathaniel. btw - Helen Mirren did a fantastic job portraying Rand. Imagine if she had had a script worth acting. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Bissell Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 I agree, Michael - the movie had a very loose resemblance to the book. But IMO, the amount of harm it did to Rand and Objectivism was even less than the amount of good the Atlas movies accomplished. Very marginal, tepid smear job.NB wasn't very happy about the movie, but (ias he related about 15 years ago to a gathering in his home) one of his friends tried to cheer him up by pointing out what a "stud" it made him look like. (?) He didn't come across very impressively as characterized in the movie, but Mirren did a (to me) truly scary and believable portrayal of Rand.The book, however, is well worth the read. It tore the lid off the mythology surrounding the Split and eventually revealed what an uninformed dogmatist Peikoff was about the relationship between Rand and Branden. (His wife told him that the Branden's *weren't* lying, that the Ayn Rand Archives confirmed the existence of The Affair, and that their statements of historical fact couldn't be rejected out of hand just because they had lied during a specific period of time 20 years earlier.)PAR is well worth the re-read, too. I love Barbara's style, and from the richness of detail in her interviews with Rand and her recollections about the early days of the Movement, I have a much deeper sense of who all three of them were - Frank, too, to some extent. Only "100 Voices" comes anywhere close to providing this kind of historical insight into Rand in particular.REB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Nathaniel was a much more powerful person than as portrayed in the movie. PAR was better that way but still short. That's because much of what made NB come across as powerful were the powerful ideas he was teaching, not just personality and charisma, and that NBI context. Barbara didn't concentrate on the ideas.--Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf DeVoon Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Nathaniel was a much more powerful person than as portrayed in the movie.Well, different anyway. He called me to his office in LA to talk about filming his self-esteem lectures. At the time he had one arm and a leg in plaster casts, after a mishap at a roller disco nightclub. Nice fellow, but a little nuts I thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backlighting Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 Nathaniel was a much more powerful person than as portrayed in the movie.Well, different anyway. He called me to his office in LA to talk about filming his self-esteem lectures. At the time he had one arm and a leg in plaster casts, after a mishap at a roller disco nightclub. Nice fellow, but a little nuts I thought.Wolf, care to share anything as to why you considered Nathaniel a little nuts? Just curious.-J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf DeVoon Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 I've seen it elsewhere, prominent people having fun, fun, fun. Serious people typically don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I've seen Nathaniel deadly serious.Culturally Jews tend to have more fun than Christians. They put it into their nurtured DNA. Rand was quite the exception.Jews seem to be more down to earth oriented and Christians are more up in the sky. Waiting for Jesus, I suppose, fearing God.Of course there are Jews and Jews just like Christians and Christians.Who wants to study the Talmud? I respect it but can't relate to it at all. If I were Jewish I'd just go to the Rabbi for words of wisdom. Let him study it. Division of labor and all that.--Brantnon-observant--of everything except the big thing: reality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf DeVoon Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I didn't think of Mr. Branden as a Jew. For me, Jews are the fellows at Warner Bros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backlighting Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 I'm glad I had the opportunity to, on this site, thank Barbara for writing PAR.She graciously responded back "you're welcome"Would have loved to meet her... R.I.P.-J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 ...Culturally Jews tend to have more fun than Christians. They put it into their nurtured DNA. Rand was quite the exception.Jews seem to be more down to earth oriented and Christians are more up in the sky. Waiting for Jesus, I suppose, fearing God.Of course there are Jews and Jews just like Christians and Christians....Um Brant, you need to spend some time with us Italian "Christians," or, some of my Irish Christian friends, or, some of my Greek Christian friends...There are usually lots of Jewish girls who want to hang out with us...A... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backlighting Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 Ah, an ol flame, Maxine Heller comes to mind. I could count on her ringing my bell, Manischewitz in hand.She knew where the good eats were to be found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Ah, an ol flame, Maxine Heller comes to mind. I could count on her ringing my bell, Manischewitz in hand.She knew where the good eats were to be found.Good grief at least bring Chianti - that was grape juice!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backlighting Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 Ah, an ol flame, Maxine Heller comes to mind. I could count on her ringing my bell, Manischewitz in hand.She knew where the good eats were to be found.Good grief at least bring Chianti - that was grape juice!!lol, but she was Jewish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 ...Culturally Jews tend to have more fun than Christians. They put it into their nurtured DNA. Rand was quite the exception.Jews seem to be more down to earth oriented and Christians are more up in the sky. Waiting for Jesus, I suppose, fearing God.Of course there are Jews and Jews just like Christians and Christians....Um Brant, you need to spend some time with us Italian "Christians," or, some of my Irish Christian friends, or, some of my Greek Christian friends...There are usually lots of Jewish girls who want to hang out with us...A...Heh. Don't let them now I'm coming. They might scatter.--Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Ah, an ol flame, Maxine Heller comes to mind. I could count on her ringing my bell, Manischewitz in hand.She knew where the good eats were to be found.Good grief at least bring Chianti - that was grape juice!!lol, but she was Jewish!Oh, I understand, have had to inbibe that swill at many a toast at Jewish functions.You needed to retrain her as to the proper drinking protocol to call on an Italian...lolA... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Thanks, Michael. No wonder I couldn't guess. I was coerced into watching the Mirren movie. Nice hatchet job.Based on her relentless pseudo-intellectual posturing, some might find the title “The Passion of Ayn Rand” oxymoronic. Nonetheless, it’s an ambitious, visually sumptuous attempt to depict a bizarre element of a controversial personality’s life... Rand and Branden embraced the homily “The rich are different from you and me” as both a virtue and a life’s philosophy. Ultimately, and inevitably, the film shows that these pitiful souls celebrating a life of the mind were, despite their pretensions, as misguided and messed-up as anyone else. [Variety]Embodied by the perpetually terrific Helen Mirren, Rand is a fascinating, driven demon of a woman, a cruel, egotistical dynamo willing to destroy all those around her... What makes The Passion Of Ayn Rand so simultaneously frustrating and interesting is the way it glamorizes Rand's philosophy while at the same time showing it to be impractical and wrongheaded in practice... spending two hours with two articulate, loathsome people. [A.V. Club]Earlier in the day Clinton earned celebrity endorsements from Barbra Streisand and Helen Mirren.“I’ve always said how incredibly important Margaret Thatcher was – although I didn’t agree with her politics,” Mirren said on Thursday. “She was a role model for a little three-year-old girl [to think] that she could become the prime minister of England. It’s so incredibly important. So go Hillary!” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backlighting Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 Ah, an ol flame, Maxine Heller comes to mind. I could count on her ringing my bell, Manischewitz in hand.She knew where the good eats were to be found.Good grief at least bring Chianti - that was grape juice!!lol, but she was Jewish!Oh, I understand, have had to inbibe that swill at many a toast at Jewish functions.You needed to retrain her as to the proper drinking protocol to call on an Italian...lolA...Top this: My wife and I were the only 2 gois at an orthodox wedding reception in the 70's...about a hundred guests... Payots and black suits everywhere. Men danced with men, women with women...the smell of gefilte fish in the air. But I survived.-J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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