In the interim, I have broken another habit and begun another novel in in order to slip out of the funk. I found the Fountainhead in a 50 cent bin at the library, and having read and enjoyed Dear Ms. Rand's hyper contentious "Atlas Shrugged" this spring, I went in with guns blazing.
This blog was started ostensibly because I read Atlas Shrugged, but I never wrapped my head completely around the book itself and the recent hoopla around it. Even if I still haven't entirely, I wanted to address the growing trend amongst otherwise clever writers of simply dismissing it out of hand as being fascist. I think this book has received the popularity, not of Glenn Beck and his ilk, but of an impressive set young readers, because of a vision of the individual that is in keeping with the mantras they're inundated with about the virtue of hard work, character and discipline, without all the moral loopholes and caveats that render those same codes spineless. Our culture, particularly but not exclusively, men of my generation, is besodden on all sides by Lotus Eaters, and it has become entirely too easy for men, educated or otherwise, to become comfortable both economically and socially without ever having been forced to excel at anything. There is a wealth the likes of which the world has never experienced of smart, inspired energy evaporating into the ether with either monotony or complacency. Atlas Shrugged for me was a call to arms against atrophy, an inspiration and instruction to pursue excellence and to flatly ignore the impulse to compromise. It is the bible of ambition, and while you could lead a herd of elephants through the holes in her logic, there aren't any examples in literature with a more compelling argument for hard work that I'm come across.
Rand's heroes are pitted against their world, which may only be a shaky mirror image of ours, but if you can't recognize a piece of her frustrations with elements of bureaucracy, elected government and our most artificial and hypocritical social script, then you simply do not pay attention.
Her Philosophy, though harsh, does not condone half truths any more than Christianity does on the other end of the Spiritual spectrum. It is a strict atheism, and has genuinely fair guidelines in terms of integrity, both social and economical. Hank Reardon doesn't ship his plants overseas to increase profits any more than Dagny Taggart hires scabs. To truly worship at the alter of objectivism requires personal standards a great many of her recent boosters do not in good faith possess. That is in large part, I think, the reason for the dismissal and intense dislike amongst her critics. A great many of her fans happen to be assholes.
Rand's style is entirely void of modern stylistic apparati and thusly is more in tune with Romanticism (thank you paperback preamble). I'm not at all adverse to that convention so I didn't have the hard time ploughing through Atlas as some of my peers confessed to. The author uses every word, every character, every symbol and every circumstance in her novel to promote her ideology and makes no bones about it. It is as focused a writing as you're liable to read, while still leaving room for excitement and heart-pumping page turning.
The stories I think are compelling, but that the characters are 100% archetypical is an adjustment; there are villians, heros, the unredeemably corrupted, the born again Objectivists and the sheep. Period. In my lifetime I have never met anyone who was just one of theses things, and the author herself certainly didn't walk the walk (pass the Amphetamines would you darling...). At any rate, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are books you should read regardless of your political leanings. If you start freaking out and plotting to take over the world, just take a cold shower. You got through the Grapes of Wrath without ever helping any poor people and reading Ayn Rand won't turn you into Ralph Klein.
Again, we find ourselves on opposite sides of the literary fence. I zipped through the Scarlet Letter, but found myself hyperventilating from boredom whilst trying to slog through Atlas Shrugged. Not because I am so diametrically opposed to Objectivism, (it truly doesn't jibe with my personal belief system, but to each his own, etc.) more because I was so completely disconnected from any and all elements of her writing. Nothing compelling in her storytelling for the likes of me.
ReplyDeleteMind you, The Scarlet Letter is no rollercoaster ride of action and adventure, either. It's just speaking a language I can hear, I suppose.
I've never hyperventilated from bordom, I've only napped. I'll lick Hawthorne yet, I just needed a change of pace, it's been the longest stretch of not reading in my young life. I actually even like the book, but maybe its like drinking Vodka before noon. Right book, wrong time.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you like it because it's a good moral story for adults. I think of it as the A-B-C's of Communism for neo-conservatives, except not nearly as concise.
ReplyDeleteIs it hard work makes you free, or arbeit macht frei? She didn't like the welfare state, so she wrote a fairy tale about how it fundamentally cannot work, which has been referenced and repeated by neoliberals every since.
Rand herself opposed any type of collectivism (fascism, communism, socialism or otherwise). About the only kind of ism or collective impulse she didn't oppose was corporatism. She was rich and smart, and wanted a world where lesser people couldn't cooperate to overcome that advantage collectively. She packages this system in a style that celbrates classic protestant work ethic.
Do you so long for a social revival of laissez faire capitalism (destructive with huge recessions) in combination with a tear down of the social collectivism that makes Canada work? I'll take autonomous indulgent individualism with a welfare state any day. The central theme of the book is that Laissez faire is the best system and we should return to it. This thesis lacks historical merit. Her half truth is to omit history in favor of a fairy tale that supports her world view.
Naturally in Atlas Shrugged it's the champions of capitalism that keep the wheels of the world in motion. Most of us are just along for the ride, with little capacity and no moral right to direct their judgements and decisions, though they govern the planet.
Most of the titans of industry, from Edison to Gates, got their glory and gold by screwing and stealing from others, rather than through pure hard work.
Many of the same conservatives who promote this book, and critcize the big government and statism of Obama, loved the same big government and statism of Bush.
I can't really argue with much of that, except to say
ReplyDelete"Her Philosophy, though harsh, does not condone half truths any more than Christianity does on the other end of the Spiritual spectrum. It is a strict atheism, and has genuinely fair guidelines in terms of integrity, both social and economical. Hank Reardon doesn't ship his plants overseas to increase profits any more than Dagny Taggart hires scabs. To truly worship at the alter of objectivism requires personal standards a great many of her recent boosters do not in good faith possess. That is in large part, I think, the reason for the dismissal and intense dislike amongst her critics. A great many of her fans happen to be assholes."