The most distressing thing about this quote from Rand is that many people, even today, will read it and say that it’s wise, insightful, and true, rather than see it for what it is: incoherent nonsense.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
I remember watching a video essay on one of her books a few years ago (it was either Atlas or Fountainhead) and the video pointed out that in order to read Marx’s Das Kapital you have to get through like 30 pages of maths at the very beginning and describes the world as it is (at least from Marx’s perspective), but Ayn Rand had to invent not one but several super metals, stronger, lighter, and cheaper than steel, and make everyone other than her main characters complete idiots in order to form her view on how the world should be. The fact that these two outlooks can even be comparable is laughable on its face, but knowing that many American politicians view here’s as the ‘correct’ one is downright depressing (and more importantly, dangerous)
I’ve read all of Rand. I think her novels are fucking hilarious - although not for the intended reasons. Her dialogue is like some deliberately overwrought sketch you’d see on youtube/tiktok/IG
The most distressing thing about this quote from Rand is that many people, even today, will read it and say that it’s wise, insightful, and true, rather than see it for what it is: incoherent nonsense.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
I remember watching a video essay on one of her books a few years ago (it was either Atlas or Fountainhead) and the video pointed out that in order to read Marx’s Das Kapital you have to get through like 30 pages of maths at the very beginning and describes the world as it is (at least from Marx’s perspective), but Ayn Rand had to invent not one but several super metals, stronger, lighter, and cheaper than steel, and make everyone other than her main characters complete idiots in order to form her view on how the world should be. The fact that these two outlooks can even be comparable is laughable on its face, but knowing that many American politicians view here’s as the ‘correct’ one is downright depressing (and more importantly, dangerous)
I’ve read all of Rand. I think her novels are fucking hilarious - although not for the intended reasons. Her dialogue is like some deliberately overwrought sketch you’d see on youtube/tiktok/IG
A lot of her writing reminds me of trashy fanfic smut, like 50 Shades-level of awkward to read and just bad writing practices
Ayn Rand writes capitalist slash fic