Hello friends,
I think many of you might have read at least one novel of Ayn Rand. If you have not read any of her works - do read it! Mostly people know her for "The Fountainhead" or "Atlas Shrugged". Like many others I am fan of Ayn Rand and I am proud to write that I have read almost all of her fiction books (I have hard copy of all 4 novels). -
1. The Anthem.
2. We the Living
3. The Fountainhead
4. Atlas Shrugged
5. Night of 16th January (this one is not novel)
In most of these books the central theme is there is "A hero". Her hero is generally some kind of inventor or highly intellectual person and he is fighting with the incompetent world around him. Mostly the hero has to fight with the incompetent people because the world thinks that "Strong men are bound to help weak men" and not only that, they think "it is their duty to do so for their brothers".
Rarely I have seen importance to heroines in her novels. Surely "Dagny Taggart" has strong role in Atlas Shrugged but otherwise mostly the heroines do not fight in her novels (at least to the best of my memory she does not describe their direct fight with the society).
The pledge taken by the hero of Atlas Shrugged explains her philosophy quite well - "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
I started reading her work with Atlas Shrugged. This book had enormous impact on my way of thinking. For some period of time I almost adapted John Galt's personality :) (God help teen age :D).
On today's date I do not totally agree with her heroes. I do think that it is wrong for any weak in this world to think that the strong has got responsibility to help them, but I do think it is fair for the strong to think that let's take care of the weak elements in the society.
Rarely there are people who are strong in all aspects. Most of the others (including me) are good in some things and are weak in others. Rather unlike her heroes when I say I am strong in some field then it just means that I am competent enough. Not something like I am the God of that field. Though I have dream that I should be able to become master of some field in life.
One of the things which I do not appreciate in her books is some kind of magic happens which gives her heroes victory over the incompetents. Like the concept of Valley in Atlas Shrugged and the world coming to its knees because of it. I do see this in society that many a times competent people get less than what they deserve and incompetent ones sometimes get things without reason. But it does not mean that incompetent people rule this world. Nor do I think that all the incompetent people should be slaves of the competent people. I think like me 99.99% people in this world have competency in limited area and probably only 0.0001% people in this world might be totally incompetent to do a single thing. I think society mostly works based on give and take, but I equally think that without love and brotherhood the world can not go far neither it would have survived without these elements till date.
I would have really appreciated her novels in even in a single novel her hero had got child and she would have written some good amount of details on how children are raised in that ideal society. Also I do not get answer to question that what kind of society will this egoistic people will create? How will they face natural calamities without brotherhood? How will they survive from animals (if no society exists!). Also I do not understand how much happy the woman in this competent society will be, if the hero rapes heroine to express his love/ possession to her.
Please do not take this post as criticism against Ayn Rand. I am not trying to take role of Ellsworth Toohey, I am trying to post my confusion in accepting her theory in total. If you have not read any of her books then I will recommend you to read at least one (The Fountainhead). Her novels surely make one think about oneself, her writing style is surely one of THE good styles and pages of her novels do give you some insight into yourself and they way you look towards society. I know there are people for whom Ayn Rand is the only God (though they are atheists!!) in this world. For me her writing tells me that do not accepts things unless your intellect accepts it. Do not take anything without intellect, even if it is theory coming from Ayn Rand's novels.
I think many of you might have read at least one novel of Ayn Rand. If you have not read any of her works - do read it! Mostly people know her for "The Fountainhead" or "Atlas Shrugged". Like many others I am fan of Ayn Rand and I am proud to write that I have read almost all of her fiction books (I have hard copy of all 4 novels). -
1. The Anthem.
2. We the Living
3. The Fountainhead
4. Atlas Shrugged
5. Night of 16th January (this one is not novel)
In most of these books the central theme is there is "A hero". Her hero is generally some kind of inventor or highly intellectual person and he is fighting with the incompetent world around him. Mostly the hero has to fight with the incompetent people because the world thinks that "Strong men are bound to help weak men" and not only that, they think "it is their duty to do so for their brothers".
Rarely I have seen importance to heroines in her novels. Surely "Dagny Taggart" has strong role in Atlas Shrugged but otherwise mostly the heroines do not fight in her novels (at least to the best of my memory she does not describe their direct fight with the society).
The pledge taken by the hero of Atlas Shrugged explains her philosophy quite well - "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
I started reading her work with Atlas Shrugged. This book had enormous impact on my way of thinking. For some period of time I almost adapted John Galt's personality :) (God help teen age :D).
On today's date I do not totally agree with her heroes. I do think that it is wrong for any weak in this world to think that the strong has got responsibility to help them, but I do think it is fair for the strong to think that let's take care of the weak elements in the society.
Rarely there are people who are strong in all aspects. Most of the others (including me) are good in some things and are weak in others. Rather unlike her heroes when I say I am strong in some field then it just means that I am competent enough. Not something like I am the God of that field. Though I have dream that I should be able to become master of some field in life.
One of the things which I do not appreciate in her books is some kind of magic happens which gives her heroes victory over the incompetents. Like the concept of Valley in Atlas Shrugged and the world coming to its knees because of it. I do see this in society that many a times competent people get less than what they deserve and incompetent ones sometimes get things without reason. But it does not mean that incompetent people rule this world. Nor do I think that all the incompetent people should be slaves of the competent people. I think like me 99.99% people in this world have competency in limited area and probably only 0.0001% people in this world might be totally incompetent to do a single thing. I think society mostly works based on give and take, but I equally think that without love and brotherhood the world can not go far neither it would have survived without these elements till date.
I would have really appreciated her novels in even in a single novel her hero had got child and she would have written some good amount of details on how children are raised in that ideal society. Also I do not get answer to question that what kind of society will this egoistic people will create? How will they face natural calamities without brotherhood? How will they survive from animals (if no society exists!). Also I do not understand how much happy the woman in this competent society will be, if the hero rapes heroine to express his love/ possession to her.
Please do not take this post as criticism against Ayn Rand. I am not trying to take role of Ellsworth Toohey, I am trying to post my confusion in accepting her theory in total. If you have not read any of her books then I will recommend you to read at least one (The Fountainhead). Her novels surely make one think about oneself, her writing style is surely one of THE good styles and pages of her novels do give you some insight into yourself and they way you look towards society. I know there are people for whom Ayn Rand is the only God (though they are atheists!!) in this world. For me her writing tells me that do not accepts things unless your intellect accepts it. Do not take anything without intellect, even if it is theory coming from Ayn Rand's novels.
5 comments:
Really nicely written Ashish! I haven't read a lot of Ayn Rand yet, but have liked what I have. I guess with all fiction writers you have to follow the rule you mention; accept only as much you can comprehend through your intellect.
The funny thing is that as we go through different experiences in life, this intellect of ours keeps modifying and our comprehension ability for certain situations changes drastically. Some things which I read during my school days for example started making sense to me many years later. That's the beauty of life! :)
Again, I agree with what you said about being competent in something. In fact I think that the 0.0001% people you talk about simply don't exist! Everyone has certain downsides and certain skeletons in the cupboard. An ideal society doesn't (and shouldn't) exist at all. It would take away the adaptability and spontaneity of life as we know it. However unlikely it seems, good people do help others in areas where they not up to scratch and vice-versa. Fiction writers try to magnify this fact, which is why it's called 'fiction' in the first place! :)
I have had very few chances to read Any Rand's books, rather I myself have not taken any other opportuntiy other than the one when I tried reading The Fountainhead (which was 6 years back) . I wouldn't call The eccentric Roark my favourite but I loved his attitude of - DONT GIVE A DAMN WHAT OTHERS THINK. But apart from that I had not been able to connect to it. But I strongly believe it is because of what Nikhil has put up in the second paragraph above - the continual change in perseptions and ability to understand some things better only with time.
So I am still waiting for my head to grow up so that I can have another session with Roark and other competent characters in all these books :D, but you definitely got my head ticking.!!
Thank you Nikhil and Gayathri for comment.
@Nikhil - "we go through different experiences in life, this intellect of ours keeps modifying and our comprehension ability for certain situations changes drastically" - wonderful explanation. Thanks for reminding this.
@Gayathri- "continual change in perseptions and ability to understand some things better only with time". I liked this line.
I am really unable to find books to read now. After reading Ayn Rand, others do not impress as much as Ayn Rand does. I am searching for quite a long time for author who gives readers something more than fiction - "foot for thought". Ayn Rand have done this exceptionally well!
Hope soon I will start liking some other author (else I will try to write ;) )
Ayn Rand has idealistic heroes, but there is one thing common in them... they are all lonely kind of people. To me they look deprived of affection in their lives, they've got no one living for them and thus never think to live for anyone else. They just can't get the idea that people do live for others and its not a sin!
Hank Rearden in Atlas Shrugged has a family, but his family is very ill portrayed. His wife is unsupportive, brother is resentful and his mother berates him whenever she can!
Thank you Chetan.
"They just can't get the idea that people do live for others and its not a sin!" I liked this sentence :)
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