Can someone explain Ayn Rand to me?!

I honestly can't remember any of the details of Anthem it's been so long - We I read (and re-read, and then wrote a song about lol) just a few years ago. it's the diary of an unreliable narrator who is working on the collective's project to send a rocket into space to colonize other worlds, everyone lives in a city that is made entirely of glass, privacy does not exist, sex is a random, emotionless act, there's intimations of a wild, natural world beyond the city's borders but no one ever goes there (or is allowed to). everyone has a number instead of a name. Major precursor to 1984, a bit stranger in its conception.

and to think she was writing this as a dystopia.

We read absolutely NO Rand in school.

The Fountainhead's one contribution to my life is that it gave me a reference for my pre-existing disdain for buildings with balconies stuck all over them. Whenever I see a new one being built, I think to myself, "Gary Cooper would dynamite that piece of shit."

There are very good reasons why something like The Fountainhead ought not be taught in an AP senior English course, the two most important are:

-it diminishes the value of the AP (college credit) course. Do you want to insult your students by sending them packing to college with an English credit worth less than what other high schools might provide? You may as well tattoo your students with "my high school is dumbed down shit" before sending them off to college. Not fair, snobbish, etc.....but you're supposed to prepare your students to compete.

-I personally would feel intimidated if a teacher (especially a male one) included something as ideologically biased and aligned with power as The Fountainhead. He may as well pull his dick out in class and ask who wants to blow him.

The job of a teacher of AP ENGLISH is to unselfishly prepare his or her students for college, to give them the best equivalent of a college credit he or she can. Concerned parents ought to tear that guy's nuts off.

hay
http://i38.tinypic.com/2ljky93.jpg

dead ringer for my grandmother

senior year, as I recall: Crime & Punishment, some Chekhov, parts of Milton & Dante, The Stranger, Things Fall Apart, Lord of the Flies (fucking hate that book), a couple of novels I have to have forgotten.

I think the non-AP classes got Randed.

I had to read Anthem in honors english. my classmates were walking around with blown minds

didn't read Rand in my HS (in california in the late 80's). I have a hard time remembering exactly what all we read outside of Great Expectations, Hamlet, Portrait of the Artist...there were several shakespeare plays but I've read so many later on in college I can't remember exactly what.

AP English - taught by closeted lesbian - included things like To the Lighthouse and Nausea. People taking AP English got bumped up and out of 12th grade English, whereas the AP students in history had to take modules from the 11th grade course in 10th. So I missed 12th grade's normal course with things like Macbeth.

Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies and 1984/Animal Farm were junior high assignments in our district. Other works assigned at my high school: Doctor Faustus, The Merchant of Venice, Notes from Underground, To the Lighthouse, Pride and Prejudice, Nausea, Murder in the Cathedral (my biggest extra credit scam was to cross-ref with Anouilh's Becket), Dubliners, Pygmalion, the Scarlet Letter, the Great Gatsby, the Odyssey, Julius Caesar, Oedipus Rex, Waiting for Godot, the Rhinoceros, The Idiot.

I suspect the only reason any schoolkid from the UK would have even heard of rand is because of Neil Peart from Rush espousing her outlook. I cannot imagine her books ever being taught in secondary school here, and even among victim-culture conservatives, she has no game that I am aware of. I tried reading one of her books, I forget which one, not "the fountainhead" (I saw the film of that one on TV, dreadful) found it literally unreadable, and as I mentioned upthread, I struggled through some of Wyndham Lewis' ouvre..

Whatever happened to that film of one of her books that Angelina Jolie was suppsed to be all over making? That would have potentially been hilarious.

atlas shrugged, you mean.

People have been trying to make that into a movie for many years, iirc.

I really wish someone would make a movie called Atlas Shrugged and it'd be less than a minute long with Atlas holding the Earth, shrugging, and Earth falling out of his hands and breaking into pieces on the floor. Roll credits.

Atlas vs. Godzilla

YES

LOL in high school I'd read/looked at too much Cocteau so doodled an Atlas in a tutu holding up Earth. See also this picture painted on back panel of black denim jacket that would probably get 18-year-old me busted for Columbine or terror today:

http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_118598_409296_berenice-abbott.jpg

yeah i wrote some pretty alarming "personal fiction" in school that never seemed to worry my teacher

boy I'm still wondering what would have happened had I not intercepted the VHS I turned into my teacher once that mistakenly had lesbian porn on it.....

well it didn't mistakenly have the porn on there, it was supposed to, I turned the wrong tape in for extra credit, realized my mistake a day later...thank god she didn't watch it

That Atlas Shrugged movie is actually going ahead as a no-budget indie. There was a "teaser" released that includes an interview with the producer, John Aglialoro, that's so bad that some Objectivist blog was tearing it to shreds, but I can't find that link. But anyway: http://vimeo.com/13589866

My Cocteau gun jacket was just a subtle reminder to the sort of girls who looked like Rod Stewart in drag not to say shit behind my back.

I was writing a lot in school too - it did not worry the teacher I allowed to read it, who was like 'go get published' but when my uncle lined up a book deal for me I baulked at the nepotism aspect. However it did give me ammo for an annoying 11th grade English teacher who, if she criticized me in front of the group on spurious grounds, would inevitably be asked 'and your publisher would be?'

thank god she didn't watch it

you never know, might have turned into a hot date and some "extra credit" for you

The funny thing is that if you do a search, libertarians/objectivists are more excited about this than Sc1entologists were about "Battlefield Earth" even though it's destined to be 1,000,000x as bad.

xoist if you saw this woman, you'd know why I suddenly had the urge to blow lungbutter in my whole foods bag

Oh, snap, I found it: http://aynrandcontrahumannature.blogspot.com/2010/07/epic-fail-update.html

The comments are the lol-worthy part. Esp. this one:

By a happy chance, I was able to secure an exclusive interview with John Aglialaro, who fills us in on the upcoming "Atlas" movie.

Q: Mr. Aglialaro, what was the most important thing to you about bringing "Atlas Shrugged" to the screen?

A: The key to the movie is to start strong and close strong. So we're starting with a scene where Wesley Mouch, Jim Taggart, and Ellis Wyatt debate on CNBC. Well, it might be CNBC, or it might be CNN or Fox News or Headline News or Bloomberg or BBC or Fox Business or ESPN or TBS or FX or PBS. I can't say, obviously. But it's CNBC. And Wyatt is in a remote location, which we do with a green screen. And the movie is in color, by the way. It's a color film.

Q: In the clip I saw, Wyatt makes reference to "back-room shenanigans." Is this dialogue taken from the novel?

A: The syllables that make up those words are in the novel, but not arranged in that order.

Q: Are there any lines of dialogue that were taken from the novel?

A: There are lots of words straight out of Ayn Rand's text. Words like "the" and "and" and "of."

Q: Why did you fire the director you'd announced for the project and replace him with Paul Johannson just a few days before the commencement of photography?

A: When you have an opportunity to work with a super-talented guy like Paul, you can't pass it up. I mean, he's a double threat, both a writer and a director. Like Orson Welles. Or H.G. Wells. I always get those two mixed up. Which one did "War of the Worlds"?

Q: They both did.

A: Well, that's just confusing.

Q: How did your background as a purveyor of gym equipment help you to master the filmmaking process?

A: I learned a lot from the exercise biz. For one thing, I learned there's no pain, no gain. If we do this movie the way we intend to, sitting through it will be an incredibly painful experience.

Q: Do you have a favorite moment in the film?

A: There's a scene where Francisco has to tell Dagny that he can't give her the money she needs for the John Galt Line. And when I watched the actor we hired - who's an unemployed pizza delivery guy living on the beach in Santa Monica, by the way - anyway, when I watched him deliver those lines, I had a tear in my eye, a real tear. Because I realized I had just pissed away north of five million dollars on this vanity project. Who wouldn't cry about that?

Q: Any other emotional moments?

A: The scene where Dagny exchanges her bracelet for the bracelet of Rearden Metal. We had a bracelet made out of aluminium foil, spray-painted blue-green, and then we shot it in front of a green screen. It looks almost like a real bracelet. And it's in color.

Q: When can we expect to see "Atlas"?

A: The movie has nearly completed its lengthy three-day shooting schedule. After that, there'll be an extensive post-production period lasting at least a week. We hope to get the movie into theaters sometime next month, and then you can go there and buy your popcorn or your Twizzlers or your Gummi Bears or what-have-you and watch it on the big screen. That is, if anyone gives us a theatrical distribution deal, which is more than doubtful, considering that we have no stars, no budget, and no credibility whatsoever.

Q: Speaking of stars, at one time Angelina Jolie was interested in playing Dagny Taggart. What happened?

A: Well, you know, the economy and Lion's Gate and financing and studios and green screen. All of that. But if we had used A-list stars we couldn't have done "Atlas" as a cheesy no-budget independent film. And that was really our dream all along. You know, so it would be a piece of crap.

Q: Your producer, Harmon Kaslow, has an impressive list of credits.

A: Yes, Harmon has produced a number of major, significant, barely released movies like "Fatal Choice," "Boo," and "Jam." All of which were in color.

Q: You said the film has to start and end strong. Can you give us some idea of the ending?

A: It involves Dagny seeing Ellis Wyatt's house on fire, which will be done with a green screen. And then she rushes into the burning house, and there's this button flashing, and she presses the button, and there's a message from Wyatt, which I can't reveal because I don't want to spoil it --

Q: No, please don't.

A: But it's a great, great, great line that will make the rest of the movie seem almost tolerable, hopefully. Oh, what the hell. I'll spill it. Ellis Wyatt says ... "Green screen!"

Q: That pretty much sums up what this version of "Atlas" is all about.

A: I think so, yes.

Q: Thanks very much for your time, Mr. Aglialaro. I'm sure we all look forward to seeing "Atlas" in the super-discount DVD bargain bin of our local Rite-Aid very soon.

"The syllables that make up those words are in the novel, but not arranged in that order."

^^^genuis

That Atlas Shrugged movie is actually going ahead as a no-budget indie.

The one thing we see being filmed is a fake pundit saying that we "have plenty of oil here in the US" and that we are, for nefarious reasons, "still addicted to foreign oil." Despite the fact that both of those statements are both true and entirely beside the point, what do they have to do with the price of tea, I wonder? Or even the book, ffs?

if this means there ISNT going to be a big oscar bait adaptation of atlas shrugged anytime soon i am for it.

I don't really have any objection to teaching Rand in high school other than do you really want to give teenagers justification to act even more like narcissistic dicks?

Same reason teenage boys should be kept away from Catcher in the Rye.

i read my antonia in high school, fuck willa cather

i think the source of any and all complaints i've ever had about the public school system can be traced to the fact that i had to read pearl buck's 'the good earth' TWICE in three years.

i read my antonia in high school, fuck willa cather

― max, Saturday, August 14, 2010 1:37 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

;_;

I can't trust anyone who disses Willa Cather.

that's the sort of thing I'd expect of Alan Greenspan

And the movie is in color, by the way. It's a color film.

man they are really with the times!

Eisbaer you should read We...it's really great. I wonder how Rush would have treated it?

Ha, I actually first found a copy of We the Living in India when I visited at the age of 15. I don't know that much about her general popularity in India but e.g. this article does seem to suggest that it's a trend. It doesn't surprise me at all. After decades of possibly crude democratic socialism and protectionism, the country has been infatuated with a possibly crude capitalism for the past 15 years or so.

http://www.petapixel.com/2010/08/14/man-creates-worlds-largest-message-using-gps-and-12k-miles-of-driving/

Love those comments:

There's a fascinating conceptual symmetry here. Obviously this project involved a monumental waste of time, and reading Ayn Rand's leaden fiction and sophomoric philosophy is likewise a monumental waste of time, so perhaps Newcomen's message has deeper layers of meaning than he intended!

What a terrible name, Dagny Taggart. I love overblown romantic fiction!

How are you going to feel superior to Alan Greenspan without dipping your toe in some Ayn Rand. Anyway, as I said, VERY compelling media personality and somewhat juicy in biography.

The key to the movie is to start strong and close strong. So we're starting with a scene where Wesley Mouch, Jim Taggart, and Ellis Wyatt debate on CNBC.

oh i thought that interview was real, nm

av club interview w/matt taibbi

AVC: There’s an entire chapter in Griftopia devoted to systematically dismantling the character of former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. It’s called “The Biggest Asshole In The World.” Maybe we should just start with that title.

MT: [Laughs.] There are three things going on with Greenspan, three reasons why I thought it was worthwhile doing that chapter, and doing it in that way. He had a specific role, as a politician, in the sense that he was one of the primary people pushing deregulation—and a specific kind of deregulation—that ended up being a major factor in the crisis. So there was that. Then there was the second thing, which was his role as the head of the Fed, which basically allowed Wall Street to bail itself out every time it got into a speculative disaster. And then the third thing was, he was really a symbol of the kind of mindset, the ideology, that sort of Ayn Randian belief in complete and total deregulation, and the cult of the producer, and all of that stuff. The superficial pushing of that ideology, on the one hand. On the other hand, the sort of backdoor use of the government as an insurance policy and welfare program for the financial-services industry. Those contradictions were so perfectly symbolized in Greenspan, I just thought he was the ideal way to start out the whole discussion of what Wall Street was all about. He had a specific role as a villain, and he also had a sort of general role as an ideological leader of everything that went wrong.

AVC: Oh, and you also call him “a lying whore.”

MT: [Laughs] You keep throwing out all these terrible things that I’ve said back to me. Now I’m beginning to feel bad.

AVC: You also spend a lot of time criticizing the cult of Ayn Rand and her acolytes. Greenspan was a devotee, heavily influenced by her books, and even spent time socializing with her. You, on the other hand, characterize Rand as “a bloviating, arbitrary, self-important pseudo-intellectual” and call Atlas Shrugged an “incredibly long-winded piece of aristocratic paranoia.” How influential are Rand’s ideas in the financial world, and why is that a problem?

MT: I think [she] is very influential, even if people aren’t specifically referencing [her books]. I just hear the Randian philosophy constantly when I talk to Wall Street people, this whole excuse that “Everything we do is okay, because we are the producers. We’re the productive members of society. Everybody else is a parasite, therefore what’s good for Goldman Sachs is good for America.” This whole mindset is so deeply ingrained in a lot of people in this particular part of America that I don’t think there is any way you can talk about modern Wall Street without talking about these ideas.

You know, maybe it’s not Ayn Rand in particular that’s responsible for it, but the ideas that are in her books are incredibly widespread. They’re important in the sense that a lot the things these people do they couldn’t do if they didn’t have some kind of intellectual justification for it. If you’re going to sell $30 million of worthless mortgage-backed securities to some pension fund in Minnesota, and you know that’s going to bankrupt some janitor who’s been saving up his pension his entire life, you can’t do that if you don’t think it all works out well in the end for everybody. This provided the moral cover for people to do that stuff, so that’s why I thought it was worth writing about.

How great would it be if Paul Verhoeven did a 'Starship Troopers' on 'Atlas Shrugged'???

so great~

i just saw several of my fb friends "like" ayn rand but fortunately more than that like "plugging the gulf oil leak with the works of ayn rand"

How great would it be if Paul Verhoeven did a 'Starship Troopers' on 'Atlas Shrugged'???

― Spencer Chow, Tuesday, November 2, 2010 7:26 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark

i've actually put this idea forward on ilx before. IT NEEDS TO HAPPEN