tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post4077556736309460683..comments2024-02-17T07:59:18.705-08:00Comments on Grad Student Madness: Paradoxical ConservatismRufushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-18461140730135283422009-10-06T10:43:59.575-07:002009-10-06T10:43:59.575-07:00It's probably pretty hard for anyone to fob of...It's probably pretty hard for anyone to fob off 'fuck you. I got mine!" as a well-reasoned ethical stance. What makes it even more annoying is that you get the feeling that the root of it was a really lousy understanding of Nietzsche. It makes me want to pull out Nietzsche from behind a plant for his take, à la Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall.Rufushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17762279210783841414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-31964510949436943442009-10-06T06:32:12.904-07:002009-10-06T06:32:12.904-07:00Yes, Cracked nails that pretty well. It's funn...Yes, Cracked nails that pretty well. It's funny that she seemed to think that objectivism needed the candy coating of a plot and characters to make it palatable since it doesn't hold up particularly well to naked scrutiny... and then she goes and has a character recite the manifesto at excruciating length.Greg von Winckelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00187475294800057360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-60300457438145868002009-10-06T06:11:07.144-07:002009-10-06T06:11:07.144-07:00Actually, you know, I think I remember enjoying th...Actually, you know, I think I remember enjoying the Fountainhead. What really irked me was the one- I think it was probably Atlas Shrugged- in which her main character has a speech in which he states her opinions for dozens of pages. At that point, I felt like she sort of lost the thread.rufusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-62234178172616625002009-10-06T05:23:36.800-07:002009-10-06T05:23:36.800-07:00It's just too bad she didn't live long eno...It's just too bad she didn't live long enough to write in the Harry Potter series.rufusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-73344766303713131192009-10-05T23:28:06.876-07:002009-10-05T23:28:06.876-07:00I have read the two needed to be trendy and while ...I have read the two needed to be trendy and while I objectivism is not my cup of tea, I didn't find them to be bad novels. I've certainly read many duller and less engaging books than those.Greg von Winckelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00187475294800057360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-4315381040422671612009-10-05T14:22:25.787-07:002009-10-05T14:22:25.787-07:00No, that's pretty good though.
It's funny...No, that's pretty good though.<br /><br />It's funny, I read her books in High School and thought they were sort of interesting in places, but the overall tone is almost viciously stupid. They seem best suited to the sort of young male whose greatest joy in life is in winning arguments with other people who don't particularly want to be arguing with him. <br /><br />But, they remain popular. Proof positive that, if you tell people whatever silly things they want to hear in an erudite enough way, they'll think you're a genius.<br /><br />Actually, it's impossible to top Whittaker Chambers's review of Ayn Rand, which includes the following:<br />"Out of a lifetime of reading, I can recall no other book in which a tone of overriding arrogance was so implacably sustained. Its shrillness is without reprieve. Its dogmatism is without appeal. In addition, the mind which finds this tone natural to it shares other characteristics of its type. 1) It consistently mistakes raw force for strength, and the rawer the force, the more reverent the posture of the mind before it...Dissent from revelation so final (because, the author would say, so reasonable) can only be willfully wicked. There are ways of dealing with such wickedness, and, in fact, right reason itself enjoins them. From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: "To a gas chamber — go!"rufusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10166090.post-11321211941524868252009-10-05T13:04:14.979-07:002009-10-05T13:04:14.979-07:00That reminds me, have you ever seen this rather am...That reminds me, have you ever seen <a href="http://www.cracked.com/funny-304-ayn-rand/" rel="nofollow">this</a> rather amusing overview on Ayn Rand?Greg von Winckelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00187475294800057360noreply@blogger.com