The Archdruid Report June 22nd
Following a fascinating discussion of efforts by the left and right to bowlderize American literature and using H.P. Lovecraft's blatant racism as an example The Archdruid gives us a homework assignment:
Homework Assignment #2
As previously noted, since this sequence of posts is on education, there’s going to be homework. Your homework for the next month, let’s say, is to read a work of literature that offends you. The choice of book is up to you; if there’s an issue that’s too emotionally traumatic for you to tackle just now, read something on another topic instead, but don’t go too easy on yourself without good reason. You’re not expected to agree with the author—that would defeat the purpose of the assignment—but rather to understand why the world looks the way it does to the author and some of his or her readers. The same rule that governs the creation of good villains in fiction applies here: you aren’t there yet until you can imagine some set of circumstances in which you would have ended up doing the same thing.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2016/06/in-praise-of-reprehensibl...
I absolutely refuse to read anything by Ayn Rand. Maybe one of O'Reilly's works of historical fiction.
Comments
Actually, I liked Ayn Rand's books.
Though, I have still never finished the John Galt speech. She was a decent storyteller. I read it as fiction, not as philosophy. There is one scene, though, that I have been thinking about a lot lately...the collapse of the train tunnel because the infrastructure of the country was is such poor shape. My preferred book of hers was Anthem.
As an English major, I can guarantee that I had to read many books that I disagreed with philosophically, but some were good reading otherwise. Besides, they make me think.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Well ok
How about "John Galt farted." instead of laughed. Ayn Rand's super race of "producers" don't even make good sci-fi. I can't recall, but he designed, machined the parts and assembled a time machine or something.
Really? I'm sorry, but Coleridge's willing suspension of disbelief has it's limits.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Not even close.
“The strength of one's opinion should not exceed their knowledge on the matter.” ― Eric Hirzel
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Actually, I found her "writing" (such as it was)
tedious in the extreme, repetitive, and preachy to the point of being almost podium-thumping (at times). Never going back there --
When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.
Tedious and preachy for sure
And I'm still not impressed.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Don't you violate the assignment
by refusing to read Ayn Rand or any other author?
It may be distasteful. It my nauseating. But can anybody even begin to understand why they wrote it without reading it?
Try the bible for hard core practice. O'Reilly would be cakewalk after that.
Thanks for the link.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
I am a proud Pick and Choose Protestant
Closely related to Cafeteria Catholics. My interpretation of the Holy Trinity is "The Man, The Dude and The Righteous Invisible Leprechaun."
Check out Stoner Jesus Bible Study: http://www.stonerjesusbiblestudy.com
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Did you mean Pict?
An ancient an honorable peoples? A little warlike, but hey, no one's perfect.
Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!
Firesign Theater
Stop the War!
Well Protestants are occasionally warlike too
The phrase "pick and choose" refers to a selective "buffet style" choice of which parts of the Good Book are important and which parts are a little too demanding or confusing.
Very popular.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Done, years ago.
Larry Niven. Liked him as a teenager, then grew up.
Never understood why his characters always thought of themselves as rugged individualists... because every single one of them ignores the support structures they take advantage of to be that "hero".
Worst of the bunch I think is "Fallen Angels", which while pandering to SF fans as heroic, totally mocks and shames the environmental movement as being "Anti-science". Course the whole book is based off the conservative idea that the only thing holding back the ice age is global warming...
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Interesting
I read Ringworld when it first came out in 1970, loved A Mote In God's Eye and Lucifer's Hammer. I appreciated his hard science sci fi predictions. I don't recall anything about the characters.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Mein Kampf
I double dares ya!
Already read it
Incredibly trivial. I was taking a course in the Social Contract Philosophers, Hobbes, Rousseau and Locke at the time. I never have grasped what the attraction of Mein Kampf was.
But then I had a similar problrm with Hegel and Weber.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Me too
It was a pre-war copy heavily annotated by US "scholars" attempting to explain what the Chancelor really meant to say when he said X. We had our proto-facists and supporters of same here through the 20's and 30's you know.
Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!
Firesign Theater
Stop the War!
Ayn Rand gets a bit
of a bad rap. Study her biography at all and it's easy to see how her belief system came to be. It's not Ayn Rand that turned her novels into biblical manifestos for the extreme right. It's the Bill O'Reillys and Ann Coulters or Michele Bachmans of the world that make it easy to vilify Rand.
Karl Marx didn't make communism bad. He was an economist not a politician. It was politicians that made communism bad. No way around communism being bad in practice as you can't factor out greed and it requires a dictatorship to work at all. On paper -- not so bad. In practice, very bad indeed. So bad that Communist China is actually a capitalist economy!
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
To each his own
I thought and still think Ayn Rand's philosophy was both obtuse and superficial:
Ethical altruism is bad. The virtue of selfishness is good. Ooookay.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
I guess I'm not as impressed with Rand as she was with herself.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
I didn't mean to suggest
that Rand embraced the enlightened self interest of Adam Smith. She is not, however, as easily summarized as the hard nosed academic quotes you have employed. They are fine references, by the way.
I'm going to assume that you know something about her early childhood, then years later when, as a young woman living in America, she saw the rise of FDR and it scared the BeJeebus out of her; thinking that is was the Bolshevik revolution all over again.
Nearly any posit can be argued to an illogical conclusion and whatever merits Rand's audience found in her earlier days became the fuel she needed to do just that. You're right. She was superficial and remained so as she never grew intellectually beyond her initial assertions. These days, her asssertions continue to be argued by the people I mentioned in my previous post. I think I left out Paul Ryan.
I don't disagree with you and I'm not defending her philosophy so much as I find it more interesting when one puts a human face on the subject.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
"State of Fear" Michael Crichton
I read the book when it was first published. My copy is covered with yellow underline of many inaccurate, misleading and unscientific opinions of climate change and global warning. Several have debunked his ideas.
I have also read the insane trope, "Mein Kampf". In many ways I'm reminded of tRump and his nationalist propaganda and scapegoating of minorities.
Then there is Cheny, "Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America" slamming President Obama. The Dick and spawn deliver a big yawning, fail.
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking
I couldn't even finish it - I got so angry
It was so obviously BS. (I'm referring to the Crichton book, sorry)
ETA: And yes, I suppose I should go back and read it for this assignment, but I'm not going to.
Crichton was trained MD or MD/PhD IIRC
which may say something about medical training in the US. He developed a science phobia, good thing he never practiced medicine, just wrote anti-science books.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Yes, I think he was an MD, that sounds right
Some of his books were entertaining. I enjoyed a few of them, just as paperback thrillers. It seemed like in those books he kept the ideology somewhat under wraps. I never really noticed it until reading his "eco-thriller" or whatever they tried to sell it as. Then looking back, it became more obvious.
One reading is all I could handle.
Good morning Haikukitty
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking
Good morning, hawkingfan! n/t
Most crime thrillers are law enforcement propaganda
Also spy thrillers among others. Jack Bauer to the rescue! Jack Mc Coy! Baretta! Kojack!
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Cheney aslo wrote
an excellent gun safety manual.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
Very true riverlover
He also married 5 times, supported Republicans in their science denial campaign. It's a shame he has passed from this earth. (sarcasm)
Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking
I cannot recall cause of death, not that it matters.
But if Karma exists, he died relatively young. I thought is was fitting, and I am not judgemental usually. And death takes us all, but Cheney. I DO have titanium in my arm. I can't afford the take-out toward the beginning of next year. My arms has screw heads that make bumps under the skin. Good for TSA (not tested). Here, feel my elbow...
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.