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I enjoyed the magnificently climactic end scene, where John was rescued from the super-duper electro torture complex when the Viking Pirate swung from a tree branch through the window and laid his tormentor low with a manly right hook. The Death Ray was a bit of a waste of time, though.
I think this would make a splendid film, but it'd take (say) Ed Wood, Roger Corman or maybe John Waters to properly do it justice.
Ayn would have made a brilliant pulpy sci-fi writer. What a waste.
Overall, I'm glad I read it, but the bits I agreed with (the importance of doing your best, making decisions instead of doing nothing and hoping someone else will come along and save you and/or relieve you of any responsibility) you could get anywhere. The materialism was a nice touch, too, but the same applies.
It also appears that Objectivists have a beef with Libertarians. Part of me wants to find out what it is; the more sensible side kniws that I really wouldn't enjoy finding out
Ayn would have made a brilliant pulpy sci-fi writer. What a waste.
Overall, I'm glad I read it, but the bits I agreed with (the importance of doing your best, making decisions instead of doing nothing and hoping someone else will come along and save you and/or relieve you of any responsibility) you could get anywhere. The materialism was a nice touch, too, but the same applies.
It also appears that Objectivists have a beef with Libertarians. Part of me wants to find out what it is; the more sensible side kniws that I really wouldn't enjoy finding out
What is your sanity score Now?
I will point out the bits you agree with you all ready had...but people in general naturally seek sources to affirm what they believe. The challenge is finding sources of ideas that run counter to your belief.
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Ayn would have made a brilliant pulpy sci-fi writer. What a waste.
Overall, I'm glad I read it, but the bits I agreed with (the importance of doing your best, making decisions instead of doing nothing and hoping someone else will come along and save you and/or relieve you of any responsibility) you could get anywhere. The materialism was a nice touch, too, but the same applies.
It also appears that Objectivists have a beef with Libertarians. Part of me wants to find out what it is; the more sensible side kniws that I really wouldn't enjoy finding out
What is your sanity score Now?
I will point out the bits you agree with you all ready had...but people in general naturally seek sources to affirm what they believe. The challenge is finding sources of ideas that run counter to your belief.
I think I've been taking constant Wis and Int damage throughout, so I shudder to think, although thinking at all is a bit of a struggle now.
And I disagreed with an awful, awful lot of it.
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It also appears that Objectivists have a beef with Libertarians. Part of me wants to find out what it is; the more sensible side kniws that I really wouldn't enjoy finding out
Actually, it's not that bad. It's simply ironic.
Libertarianism, in broad terms, is a political position, but it's not particularly grounded in philosophy. It doesn't pay a lot of attention to questions, for example, of epistemology, ontology, deontology, and the rest of the philosophical -ologies that you can spend years mastering at good old Whatsamatta U.
Objectivism, by contrast, pays hell of a lot of attention to the philosophical -ologies. It's supposed to be an all-encompassing philosophical movement that addresses all the key questions of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Unfortunately, the answers that it obtains are almost uniformly incorrect by the standards of "real" philosophers.
So Ayn Rand was annoyed that Libertarianism didn't try to answer questions that Objectivism answered wrongly.
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A teacher hands out a quiz.
Student A answers every single question with elaborate, passionate conviction and gets every one of them wrong. They swear they are right, demand that their grade be changed, and try to get the teacher fired.
Student B only answers three of the questions, which they copied off student A. They leave the rest blank. They also claim they are right, and cite Student A as proof.
Hard to say which student is worse, really. :)
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Lovecraft was also a racist. And I'm not talking ordinary, I'm talking hyper-racist to the point that would embarrass even his fellow Victorians.You're mostly right. He certainly started out that way in his youth. There's pretty significant evidance that his racist notions lessened dramatically as he got older. He never came out and renounced anything or apologized, but he did change the way he wrote and did discuss the views of his youth with colleagues.
When he was 45, In a letter to a woman named Jennie K. Plaiser, when discussing social politics he wrote: “…I realised what an ass I had been. The liberals at whom I used to laugh were the ones who were right—for they were living in the present while I had been living in the past.”
Unfortunately for him (and us) he did most of his writing in his 20s, so the older, wiser Lovecraft doesn't get talked about much.
Please note that I am not trying to apologize, whitewash or diminish Lovecraft's well-documented racism. The man was racist for his time (especially in his youth), and shockingly, abhorrently racist when viewed by the standards of today. I just wanted to point out that Lovecraft is a great example of how hateful people can change their views.
It is interesting to compare this with Rand, who only got more bigoted, hypocritical and crazy as she got older.
A bit of a back track, but wanted to address this.
A major theme in Lovecraft's work is how little we understand of the universe, and how little of it is understandable. There's an inherent humility present in this outlook. Even if you're an arrogant bastard, if you write about the limitations of people, eventually you come to understand that you have limitations as well.
Compare that to the central theme of Rand: "I am awesome and I know better than you." It's really not surprising that one might have softened their world view, while the other hardened it.
^ nailed it.
That's my thesis on Lovecraft's racism as well. It's really hard to spend years writing about how insignificant humanity is and maintain any belief that some people are more insignificant than others.
Nihilism is a pretty impressive equalizer.
A teacher hands out a quiz.
Student A answers every single question with elaborate, passionate conviction and gets every one of them wrong. They swear they are right, demand that their grade be changed, and try to get the teacher fired.
Student B only answers three of the questions, which they copied off student A. They leave the rest blank. They also claim they are right, and cite Student A as proof.
Hard to say which student is worse, really. :)
Fortunately, I don't need to. Flunk 'em both, says I.
Since you finished, in answer to your earlier statement, yes she did write herself in. She's the fish monger in the hideaway club for important rich successful individuals.
At least according to her.
A teacher hands out a quiz.
Student A answers every single question with elaborate, passionate conviction and gets every one of them wrong. They swear they are right, demand that their grade be changed, and try to get the teacher fired.
Student B only answers three of the questions, which they copied off student A. They leave the rest blank. They also claim they are right, and cite Student A as proof.
Hard to say which student is worse, really. :)
Fortunately, I don't need to. Flunk 'em both, says I.
It's graded on a curve, and the only other student in the class just draws phalli on all his assignments.
Yes, I know Freud gets unfairly simplified to that one stupid fixation of his, but penises are funny and psychologists who obsess over them are funnier.
So all in all, the government are not following Rand, but they and the tech magnates like the message of "It's okay to be an individual and reach for what you want"? Colour me unsurprised.
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I was spending an idle moment re-reading some webcomics and I was struck by the following description of Ayn Rand and thought I'd share, even though I've never read Atlas Shrugged:
"Ayn Rand was a 20th century philosopher and author, and while she has been largely ignored in academic philosophy, she is still very well regarded in the train fanfic community, for her seminal work Atlas Shrugged. It has the distinction of being the longest, and arguably the best, train fanfic ever written."
I wondered if there were any train fanfic fans out there and, if so, what do they think about that?
I know one guy, he marshalled one of the anti-Trump rallies when the Soldiers of Odin and the Oath Keepers came out, he was a real big train enthusiast and reader (he keeps posting the rejection letters he gets from the poetry mags and asking Facebook for suggested titles) but I haven't seen him comment upon the railway fanfic genre.
Oh, yeah, probably should link the comic:
Dungeons & Dragons & Philosophers V: The Battle of Five Philosophers