What's with everybody hating objectivism and treating Ayn Rand's novels as garbage? Seriously, they're great pieces of literature whether you agree with the philosophy or not.
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Anonymous2008-05-25 6:30
Just like no sane scientist would ever bother disputing or challenging creationism, no quality artist would base their book they publish (that is, book intended for public reading) discuss notions of talented people's superiority to the masses. Her characters only dealt with the beautiful, they say; but she seems to have been their intermediary only, so why would one even bother reading her fiction? I better go read authors that deal with the beutiful first-hand.
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Anonymous2008-05-25 17:49
A good writer doesn't put a 20 page sermon in her book.
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Anonymous2008-05-25 19:14
>>2
The story was interesting, at least. Also, don't people say Roark is an inhuman character? So that would mean anyone who genuinely relates to him is either extremely talented or extremely superficial.
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Anonymous2008-05-25 19:50
>>2 >>4
Rand's characters weren't centered around their talent, rather, it was about effort and mindset. Most of those represented in Atlus Shrugged, for example, were rich; yet money was only a sort of prize, what really made them superior to the rest of the world wasn't that they had more money or talent, but that they wished to work and put effort into that work they enjoyed.
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Anonymous2008-05-25 20:10
>>5
>but that they wished to work and put effort into that work they enjoyed
Which is either a product or motivation in relation to talent, and therefore identical.
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Anonymous2008-06-01 22:46
Dosn't matter if people think they suck. They are a must read and will be for a long time.
Her characters have no character. They're just her.
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Anonymous2008-06-04 2:08
All her novels are morality plays, why would you write a morality play charcther with personality?
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Anonymous2008-06-04 3:43
>>9
I read on Wikipedia how she raped herself in one cool scene.
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Anonymous2008-06-13 2:57
The problem with Ayn Rand's work is that she's basically telling everyone "What I believe is right!"
She never deviates; never tries unique belief systems; never tries different perspectives.
It's basically reading the bible, except, instead of love, peace, plagues if you piss off God, etc., greed, selfishness, and trying to advance yourself above all else.
I had a friend who read all of the Ayn Rand books, and he became a total dick for YEARS, only calming down (and accepting that people may have different beliefs than him and still be decent people) after he realized that everyone hated him.
All that aside, the Rand books are a resounding "Meh" in terms of writing ability. Character and plot development is too fast and too slow, respectively.
Character development: "This is Roark, he's a good guy... Now, over here, this is everyone else. They're bad 'cause they help each other instead of furthering themselves financially."