Ayn Rand: The Bitch Is Back

GQ:

Goddamn, the experience of being 19 years old and reading Ayn Rand! The crystal-shivering-at-the-breaking-pitch intensity of it! Not just for that 19-year-old, but for everybody unfortunate enough to be caught in his psychic blast radius. Is "experience" even the right word for The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged? Ayn Rand's idolization of Mickey Spillane and cigarettes and capitalism"an experience? Her tentacular contempt for Shakespeare and Beethoven and Karl Marx and facial hair and government and "subnormal" children and the poor and the Baby Jesus and the U.N. and homosexuals and "simpering" social workers and French Impressionism and a thousand other things the flesh is heir to: experience?

Does a 19-year-old "experience" the likes of "She looked at the lone straight shaft of the Taggart Building rising in the distance"and...understood: these people hated Jim because they envied him"? (The lone straight shaft"get it?) Please. Ayn Rand is an imbuing. A transfiguring, even.

Read the whole story: GQ

Comments

[JScott]

Wasn't there a contest on here about 'summarizing' literature into 140 characters for Twitter.
Here's one for any of Ayn Rand's works-'It's all about ME ME ME ME!!!

[BlackJAC]

More like "I'm rich. You're poor. I'm awesome. You suck. Any questions?"

[skantea]

I'm far left, and Rand's books CLEARLY exaggerate to prove a point about the individuals contribution to the progress of the collective. She holds up the two extremes of a wide spectrum to compare and contrast, and in the end her point is fairly well supported or at the very least a great starting point to an interesting philosophical conversation. But NEWSFLASH! it's not to be taken literally, regardless of her personal life and controversial views it's just a book. One philosophy among thousands, none of which is a truly useful owners manual upon which to base an entire life.
I'm not sure the people who are hurling invectives at the "Fountainhead" have reading comprehension issues or are purposely twisting the argument just because some Republicans like to quote from it.
Seriously, Liberals like me can find just as many quotes to throw back in their faces FROM THE SAME BOOK.
BTW, since when do Repubs NOT twist literature to further their own little agendas (the Bible?!).

Lastly, this GQ author writes like he was hired by Ellsworth Toohey.

[BlackJAC]

THE FOUNTAINHEAD followed a guy who'd rather slave in a mining pit than take out a small business loan to keep his firm going. He then blew up a building because he didn't like how that building's owners were fiddling with it on the grounds that he'd designed said building. All that's missing is a shark and a water ski jump.

[skantea]

Small business loan?
During the depression?
Sheesh.
Not to mention IT'S AN ALLEGORY.

The point being he preferred to maintain his personal integrity rather than submit to those who had none.

But you see what ever you need to see, champ.

[BlackJAC]

Ein Reich, ein Volk, Ayn Rand!

[naschkatze]

"The lone straight shaft"! ROTFLMAO. Maybe it would be worth re-reading Ayn Rand to search for the Freudian imagery. I like the NYT's call on her characterization as "vulgar and unbelievable" and will have to add it to the list which includes the Chicago Tribune's reference to her "screwball paragraphing".

[JScott]

Hmm would she have this 'legacy' if she used her real name 'Alisa Rosenbaum'???????

[BlackJAC]

She wouldn't have a legacy beyond being the mother or grandmother of some celebutante if the Commies had never come to power in the first place.

[itys]

Same could be said for Barry Sorento. No?

Besides, when one finds those who imbue so much hatred toward a lone writer, my guess is that she got it right, and that you schleps can't stand to face facts.

[Wide Stance]

*Yawn* Rand is as relevant today as Michael Steele's GOP.

[sloppybear16]

the GOP certainly isn't relevant, but real conservatives like Ron Paul are extremely relevant which makes Ayn Rand most certainly relevant.

[BlackJAC]

You mean the same Ron Paul who was so desperate for anyone to pay attention to him that he got scammed by Sacha Baron Cohen?

If Ron Paul's such a conservative, why isn't he in the private sector?

[Robg54]

It's wonderful to see how low GQ has sunk to. I think this article damages GQ far more than it could touch Rand.

[TheBaffler]

Ha, a lil' free market mousketeer with his panties in a bunch over his social darwinist hero being mocked.