Authors like Rand

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21

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]Hallowed wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Has anyone mentioned Sinclair Lewis yet? It Can’t Happen Here reads like a Rand novel, or rather, Rand reads like Lewis.[/quote]

Yeah, I mentioned Arrowsmith. That’s a good one.

I was also thinking that Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth has some strong characters, especially the mason that feels it’s his life’s purpose to build a cathedral.[/quote]

Pillars of the Earth ix probably in my top twenty. Yes BEFORE it was an Oprah book LOL.
my dad also loved it.[/quote]

Ugh…was it an Oprah book? I feel dirty now.

Did you get his newest, Fall of Giants?
I just started this morning and it’s very good so far. His characters are so easy to get interested in. Follett could write about a guy going shopping for socks and I wouldn’t be able to put it down.[/quote]

Yeah Oprah pissed me off with that one! She sullied my book. I think she also did a Joyce Carol Oates “because it is bitter and because it is my heart” I have a little JCO fetish when I’m trying to feel all emo.

Haven’t gotten his new one yet is on my list… damn he’s good but fo sho Pillars his greatest.

22

Hella need to get back into fiction.

23

BIOSHOCK, game is amazing. I hope a movie gets made before I die.

24

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I’m serious. Actually anything non-fictional by Hunter S. Thompson fits the bill really. He actually uses this line to describe Dr. Gonzo, but it fits perfectly for him: Too weird to live, too strange to die.[/quote]

Too weird to live, and too RARE to die.

That man’s perspective was brilliant

25

I’m half way through Atlas Shrugged. Anyone else find it exhausting to read? Its hard to hate so many people so much for 1100 pages.

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I know Rand is getting popular when posts like this ridiculing her show up.

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Vonnegut

28

[quote]MementoMori wrote:
I’m half way through Atlas Shrugged. Anyone else find it exhausting to read? Its hard to hate so many people so much for 1100 pages.[/quote]

And only one joke in the whole book from what I recall. I read it 15 years ago.

29

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]MementoMori wrote:
I’m half way through Atlas Shrugged. Anyone else find it exhausting to read? Its hard to hate so many people so much for 1100 pages.[/quote]

And only one joke in the whole book from what I recall. I read it 15 years ago.[/quote]

I read it really fast- maybe a week, 8, 9 days at the most. It wasn’t so much that I found the characters fascinating, so much as what the OP alludes to- that everyone is the epitomy of whatever they’re doing. Everything is ‘superlative’, and possesses the dexterity of a ‘somnambulist’… swear to God, she loved those words.

I guess I just liked the way she described things. Well, the first time. Then she’d keep repeating it, but whatever.

30

[quote]SuperFast wrote:

[quote]re.law wrote:
This is a fantasy series: The Sword of Truth - Wikipedia

It’s an excellent series, whether you glean the Rand influences or not; but by the time you get to Faith of the Fallen (the sixth book), it’s evident that the author shares the philosophical bent of Ayn Rand but has woven it into a fantasy setting as opposed to the contemporary vision of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

Even the “rules” that appear in the books from time to time, referred to as Wizard Rules, seem related to Rand’s views in some ways. For instance:

"The most important rule there is, the Wizard’s Sixth Rule: the only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason. The first law of reason is this: what exists, exists, what is, is and from this irreducible bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. It is the foundation from which life is embraced.

Thinking is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts nor are they a means to discover them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality; it is our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss that we refuse to see. Faith and feelings are the darkness to reasons light. In rejecting reason, refusing to think, one embraces death."[/quote]

Oh, that is 100% Rand. I knew there was some reason I liked that bad show! (Other than the hot baybees of course…)

If I ever read fiction again, I’ll have to check that out.

OP: if you like Rand’s fiction, but haven’t read her non-fiction, I recommend it. Intro to Objectivist Epistemology is short and sweet.
[/quote]

The show is awful but I grew up reading the series and it kicks all kinds of ass (stopped after the first 6-7 though as I hit high school and found other amusements). I’ve tried rereading but it’s so long I never get far.

As far as Rand’s non-fiction goes, Romantic Manifesto is great, and will probably help you understand her artistic style better as well.

31

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Has anyone mentioned Sinclair Lewis yet? It Can’t Happen Here reads like a Rand novel, or rather, Rand reads like Lewis.[/quote]

I love that book, but I disagree to some extent. Doremus Jessup is Rand-lite, since he has his own shortcomings and indecisiveness that Rand would never allow in her heroes. She’s much more of a “romantic idealist,” if you will.

32

[quote]belligerent wrote:
I know Rand is getting popular when posts like this ridiculing her show up.[/quote]

Ridiculing her?? I really doubt she wrote the book with the hope of people liking James Taggart or Wesley Mouch. It wasn’t a judgement on her talents.

33

[quote]Hallowed wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Has anyone mentioned Sinclair Lewis yet? It Can’t Happen Here reads like a Rand novel, or rather, Rand reads like Lewis.[/quote]

Yeah, I mentioned Arrowsmith. That’s a good one.

I was also thinking that Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth has some strong characters, especially the mason that feels it’s his life’s purpose to build a cathedral.[/quote]

Pillars of the Earth ix probably in my top twenty. Yes BEFORE it was an Oprah book LOL.
my dad also loved it.[/quote]

For really great reading involving strong characters with an enduring obsession to excel I would highly recommend a program from Game 1 of the 2010 World Series.

34

[quote]MementoMori wrote:
I’m half way through Atlas Shrugged. Anyone else find it exhausting to read? Its hard to hate so many people so much for 1100 pages.[/quote]

Rand hated far more people for much longer.

Channel your inner Roarke.

35

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I’m serious. Actually anything non-fictional by Hunter S. Thompson fits the bill really. He actually uses this line to describe Dr. Gonzo, but it fits perfectly for him: Too weird to live, too strange to die.
[/quote]

Don’t compare that evil cunt to the good doctor, please.

Hunter S. has nothing in common with that thing, especially not in the fashion of his philosophical ideals. If anything, he may be the antithesis to the rotting shit she attempts to espouse in her sorry excuses for “stories.”

Ugh. C’mon DB, you’re better than that.

36

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]MementoMori wrote:
I’m half way through Atlas Shrugged. Anyone else find it exhausting to read? Its hard to hate so many people so much for 1100 pages.[/quote]

And only one joke in the whole book from what I recall. I read it 15 years ago.[/quote]

Perhaps Benzedrine would help with that…
Helped write it…

37

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I’m serious. Actually anything non-fictional by Hunter S. Thompson fits the bill really. He actually uses this line to describe Dr. Gonzo, but it fits perfectly for him: Too weird to live, too strange to die.
[/quote]

Don’t compare that evil cunt to the good doctor, please.

Hunter S. has nothing in common with that thing, especially not in the fashion of his philosophical ideals. If anything, he may be the antithesis to the rotting shit she attempts to espouse in her sorry excuses for “stories.”

Ugh. C’mon DB, you’re better than that.
[/quote]

I’m not too familiar with the writings of Rand, so in that respect I acquiesce. But, given the criteria set by the OP, namely “do everything with superlative ability”, “so perfect that they simply cannot be real”, “explosive love for life and drive to excel” and of course, “characters that are stoic and beautiful”, I fail to see where I erred.

Aside from stoicism, I don’t know what qualities asked for above it is that Thompson does not fully possess. Raoul Duke to me is the epitome of “so perfect that they simply cannot be real” and of course we all know that Duke was really a vehicle for Thompson to write through. “Explosive love for life” and “superlative ability” are obviously there in spades with regards to Thompson.

Also, the OP did specifically state that “the philosophical/political aspect doesn’t have to necessarily be there.” So really, I don’t know how it is that I wronged the Good Doctor by equating him with what the OP specifically asked for, nor do I remember saying anything about Thompson’s political leanings in comparison to Rand’s. In essence, ugh, c’mon irish. You’re better than that.

38

you’ll probably like this:

39

The Tyler Durden character in Fight Club (book good, movie great) is a Nietzschean Superman, which is kinda similar.

40

[quote]Otep wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]MementoMori wrote:
I’m half way through Atlas Shrugged. Anyone else find it exhausting to read? Its hard to hate so many people so much for 1100 pages.[/quote]

And only one joke in the whole book from what I recall. I read it 15 years ago.[/quote]

I read it really fast- maybe a week, 8, 9 days at the most. It wasn’t so much that I found the characters fascinating, so much as what the OP alludes to- that everyone is the epitomy of whatever they’re doing. Everything is ‘superlative’, and possesses the dexterity of a ‘somnambulist’… swear to God, she loved those words.

I guess I just liked the way she described things. Well, the first time. Then she’d keep repeating it, but whatever.[/quote]

It took me a year and a half to get through it. Not that I read that slow. I had to put it down several times and come back to it weeks or months later. The repeating descriptions made it tedious, but I thought it was a good book. Could have been several hundred pages shorter however. Also how many times did she describe how a character had some deep force or desire within them that they just couldn’t name.