A Celebration of Self: Ayn Rand's masterpiece—or the worst book of its time

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

A Celebration of Self: Ayn Rand's masterpiece—or the worst book of its time

By Sara Dabney Tisdale

U.S. News & World Report

August 5, 2007

U.S. News & World Report published a retrospective of 1957 (a fifty-year appraisal of what it deems the most important year of the 50's) and as part of the whole theme, it published the above article. One of the fascinating aspects parts of this article is its juxtaposition of negative (some misleading) and positive information/appraisal about Rand:

Negative

The 1,192-page novel unapologetically fictionalized an individualist philosophy that praises selfishness, scorns charity, and turns monopolists into paragons of virtue.

Some say it was Rand's personality, not her ideas, that secured her place in history. Biographies by spurned lovers and collections of her letters reveal Rand as a passionate, sometimes tempestuous, personality, a woman with devoted loves and sworn enemies, who relished sex and dabbled in swinging, and demanded absolute loyalty from her disciples.

. . .

Positive

Rand's contribution to American individualism makes her one of the most prominent figures of the late 20th century. Rand defied Judeo-Christian altruism by touting the virtue of selfishness. Each person, she believed, had a moral duty to live only for his or her own happiness. And that meant championing the tenets of unbridled capitalism: a free market economy, individual rights and responsibilities, and limited government. In many ways, Rand's idealism rang distinctly patriotic.

(Hat tip to Barbara for bringing this article to my attention.)

Michael

[John Dailey]

~ Other than use of the phrasings "scorns charity" (which obviously so many confuse with 'altruism'), "dabbled in swinging" (more confusion with ideas of 'open marriage' and polyamory), "demanded absolute loyalty from her followers" (innuending her being a cult-guru wannabe), and "spurned all...her writings suggest, private charity," (unaware of how 'charitable' she's been...to certain groups [like, Israel] and individuals), not a bad media-summary of her, and her book's points, overall.

~ 'The Media's come a long way since resentment-filled, verbosely-vilifying, corpse-kicking Bully Buckley and his infamous Marx-turned-Christ proxy's (W-C) Sermon-on-the-Mount apologia/attack....which I call their Executioner's Song for her.

~ Maybe, one day, we'll see summaries that include no ad hominems about her writings.

LLAP

J:D

Edited August 14, 2007 by John Dailey

[Chris Grieb]

When Atlas Shrugged was published almost all the reviews were negative. The worst being National Review's by Whitaker Chambers.

Over the years the reviews have improved. Enough that it is considered a modern classic and is on high school reading lists.

For me some of the best test for any book are the following . Is it still in print? Are people still talking about. Atlas passes that test with flying colors.

Is there any other bestseller from 1957 that can be said about?

[Richard Uhler]

..."dabbled in swinging" (more confusion with ideas of 'open marriage' and polyamory)...

And the difference is...?

Edited August 14, 2007 by Richard Uhler

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Richard,

Swinging is the way the general public will always see consensual changing of sex partners between married couples, regardless of how the information is packaged.

Some Objectivists care about calling it something else, but not all that many. I personally do not find the term offensive.

However, the image conveyed by the word "swinging" does kinda grate against the Puritanical attitudes towards sex I have witnessed in statements by some Objectivists (mostly orthodox), going all the way back to Rand.

Michael

[Richard Uhler]

Richard,

Swinging is the way the general public will always see consensual changing of sex partners between married couples, regardless of how the information is packaged.

Some Objectivists care about calling it something else, but not all that many. I personally do not find the term offensive.

However, the image conveyed by the word "swinging" does kinda grate against the Puritanical attitudes towards sex I have witnessed in statements by some Objectivists (mostly orthodox), going all the way back to Rand.

Michael

Thanks. I've never known any Objectivists in daily life; I have no idea what their actual attitudes towards these things are.

Certainly a term like "swinging" is loaded language, but had the article in question called it polyamory I'd still have said to myself, "yes, and that's one place where she really screwed things up for herself and her movement."

And it's a funny thing - having just typed that, I felt a sort of rush of compassionate affection for this woman I never met - as if knowing about her mistake drives home to me her humanity, makes her life more immediate in some way. That'll want some thinking about on my part.

[John Dailey]

Richard:

~ By 'open marriage' I meant official 'marriage' wherein both partners accept 'swinging' (or, as used to be called, 'an "arrangement" between them'): sexual interaction by either with random others (neighbor-'swapping' or random pickups) was permitted by each

~ By 'polyamory' I meant love/committment (not applicable to the above) to more than one which might, or not, include sexual interaction with them; if such occurs, any 'permission' aspect is a separate question.

~ Accurately used by me or not, any dictionary check will show them to be not synonomous.

LLAP

J:D

Edited September 8, 2007 by John Dailey

[Richard Uhler]

Richard:

~ By 'open marriage' I meant official 'marriage' wherein both partners accept 'swinging' (or, as used to be called, 'an "arrangement" between them'): sexual interaction by either with random others (neighbor-'swapping' or random pickups) was permitted by each

~ By 'polyamory' I meant love/committment (not applicable to the above) to more than one which might, or not, include sexual interaction with them; if such occurs, any 'permission' aspect is a separate question.

~ Accurately used by me or not, any dictionary check will show them to be not synonomous.

LLAP

J:D

Point taken.

[Chris Grieb]

Maybe this point has been made but of the two couples only Ayn and Nat were granted the option to have an affair.

[Judith]

Swinging is the way the general public will always see consensual changing of sex partners between married couples, regardless of how the information is packaged.

Swinging implies that there was partner-swapping. As such, the term is inaccurate.

An accurate portrayal would simply state that Rand had an affair with a married man while she herself was married.

Judith

[Chris Grieb]

Michael;

What is the date for the US News this article was in?

Edited September 9, 2007 by Chris Grieb

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Chris,

I don't know the issue date. I got this on the Internet and, as listed under the title, the date is August 5, 2007.

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

Michael;

Thanks!

I wanted to answer my own question about books from 1957 that have become classics. The book is "On the Road" by Kerouac. I have never read but from what I have read about it sounds about as far from Atlas as a book can be.

The famous comments was Truman Capote's who said something like it was writing but typing.

It was supposed to be typed on a long roll of typewriter paper.

[Alfonso Jones]

When Atlas Shrugged was published almost all the reviews were negative. The worst being National Review's by Whitaker Chambers.

Over the years the reviews have improved. Enough that it is considered a modern classic and is on high school reading lists.

For me some of the best test for any book are the following . Is it still in print? Are people still talking about. Atlas passes that test with flying colors.

Is there any other bestseller from 1957 that can be said about?

Chris -

Provocative idea! Anyone know how to find bestseller lists from the past so one could actually ask the "whatever happened to that book" question about bestsellers from the 1950s?

Alfonso

[Richard Uhler]

When Atlas Shrugged was published almost all the reviews were negative. The worst being National Review's by Whitaker Chambers.

Over the years the reviews have improved. Enough that it is considered a modern classic and is on high school reading lists.

For me some of the best test for any book are the following . Is it still in print? Are people still talking about. Atlas passes that test with flying colors.

Is there any other bestseller from 1957 that can be said about?

Chris -

Provocative idea! Anyone know how to find bestseller lists from the past so one could actually ask the "whatever happened to that book" question about bestsellers from the 1950s?

Alfonso

A Google search provided these, among others:

http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~unsworth/course...lers/best50.cgi

http://www.hawes.com/no1_nf_d.htm

Other than Atlas the only novels from 1957 on that first list that I've even heard of are Peyton Place and On The Beach, and I kinda doubt that either of these changed anyone's life as AS has done. (I did read Day Of Infamy from the NYT list as a teen, but the same comment applies.)

Edited September 15, 2007 by Richard Uhler

[Alfonso Jones]

When Atlas Shrugged was published almost all the reviews were negative. The worst being National Review's by Whitaker Chambers.

Over the years the reviews have improved. Enough that it is considered a modern classic and is on high school reading lists.

For me some of the best test for any book are the following . Is it still in print? Are people still talking about. Atlas passes that test with flying colors.

Is there any other bestseller from 1957 that can be said about?

Thanks.

ALfonso

Chris -

Provocative idea! Anyone know how to find bestseller lists from the past so one could actually ask the "whatever happened to that book" question about bestsellers from the 1950s?

Alfonso

A Google search provided these, among others:

http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~unsworth/course...lers/best50.cgi

http://www.hawes.com/no1_nf_d.htm

Other than Atlas the only novels from 1957 on that first list that I've even heard of are Peyton Place and On The Beach, and I kinda doubt that either of these changed anyone's life as AS has done. (I did read Day Of Infamy from the NYT list as a teen, but the same comment applies.)

[Chris Grieb]

I was looking at a cart of second hand books at my library yesterday. On it was By Love Possessed. by John Cozzens.

I remember this book because when it came out Mr Cozzens got on the cover of Time magazine. Getting on the cover of Time was a big deal back in the 50ths.

In the Art of Fiction Miss Rand has five pages of scathing commentary about the book. Pages 116-121.

[Richard Uhler]

When Atlas Shrugged was published almost all the reviews were negative. The worst being National Review's by Whitaker Chambers.

Over the years the reviews have improved. Enough that it is considered a modern classic and is on high school reading lists.

For me some of the best test for any book are the following . Is it still in print? Are people still talking about. Atlas passes that test with flying colors.

Is there any other bestseller from 1957 that can be said about?

Thanks.

ALfonso

Chris -

Provocative idea! Anyone know how to find bestseller lists from the past so one could actually ask the "whatever happened to that book" question about bestsellers from the 1950s?

Alfonso

A Google search provided these, among others:

http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~unsworth/course...lers/best50.cgi

http://www.hawes.com/no1_nf_d.htm

Other than Atlas the only novels from 1957 on that first list that I've even heard of are Peyton Place and On The Beach, and I kinda doubt that either of these changed anyone's life as AS has done. (I did read Day Of Infamy from the NYT list as a teen, but the same comment applies.)

Alfonso, I wonder what you had intended to say...?

Edited September 15, 2007 by Richard Uhler

[Chris Grieb]

Peyton Place was the "dirty book" of the 50ths. Does anyone still read it.

On the Beach which was written by Neville Shute about a nuclear war which is killing everyone in the world. It was different from much of Shute's earlier works.

The book service Paper Tiger offers many of Shute's works. Bob Koker on this site recommend one of Shute's books

[Richard Uhler]

Peyton Place was the "dirty book" of the 50ths. Does anyone still read it.

On the Beach which was written by Neville Shute about a nuclear war which is killing everyone in the world. It was different from much of Shute's earlier works.

The book service Paper Tiger offers many of Shute's works. Bob Koker on this site recommend one of Shute's books

Right; On The Beach was on an optional reading list in a class I took when I was 13 or 14; I passed it over in favor of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, IIRC.

[Alfonso Jones]

When Atlas Shrugged was published almost all the reviews were negative. The worst being National Review's by Whitaker Chambers.

Over the years the reviews have improved. Enough that it is considered a modern classic and is on high school reading lists.

For me some of the best test for any book are the following . Is it still in print? Are people still talking about. Atlas passes that test with flying colors.

Is there any other bestseller from 1957 that can be said about?

Thanks.

ALfonso

Chris -

Provocative idea! Anyone know how to find bestseller lists from the past so one could actually ask the "whatever happened to that book" question about bestsellers from the 1950s?

Alfonso

A Google search provided these, among others:

http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~unsworth/course...lers/best50.cgi

http://www.hawes.com/no1_nf_d.htm

Other than Atlas the only novels from 1957 on that first list that I've even heard of are Peyton Place and On The Beach, and I kinda doubt that either of these changed anyone's life as AS has done. (I did read Day Of Infamy from the NYT list as a teen, but the same comment applies.)

Alfonso, I wonder what you had intended to say...?

Just thanks.

Alfonso

[Richard Uhler]

When Atlas Shrugged was published almost all the reviews were negative. The worst being National Review's by Whitaker Chambers.

Over the years the reviews have improved. Enough that it is considered a modern classic and is on high school reading lists.

For me some of the best test for any book are the following . Is it still in print? Are people still talking about. Atlas passes that test with flying colors.

Is there any other bestseller from 1957 that can be said about?

Thanks.

ALfonso

Chris -

Provocative idea! Anyone know how to find bestseller lists from the past so one could actually ask the "whatever happened to that book" question about bestsellers from the 1950s?

Alfonso

A Google search provided these, among others:

http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~unsworth/course...lers/best50.cgi

http://www.hawes.com/no1_nf_d.htm

Other than Atlas the only novels from 1957 on that first list that I've even heard of are Peyton Place and On The Beach, and I kinda doubt that either of these changed anyone's life as AS has done. (I did read Day Of Infamy from the NYT list as a teen, but the same comment applies.)

Alfonso, I wonder what you had intended to say...?

Just thanks.

Alfonso

Ah. You're welcome.

Edited September 16, 2007 by Richard Uhler