Anthem by Ayn Rand

[niccolos_smile]

After finishing up Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard this week, I picked up some Rand on a whim (wink, wink), after reading a blog post about her.

Anthem is a novella in the distopia vein of literature, such as 1984 or Brave New World, but does not live up to the quality of those works, belaboured as it by her objectivist philosophy. There isn't much in the way of plot or character development, just a poor attempt at rendering philosophy into fiction.

Rand sets the collectivist stage right away by having the hero always refer to himself in the first person plural, nor does the hero have a unique name. The obvious point from the 1st chapter is that this is to reinforce the collective, no possessions, not even a name, nothing which is distinguishing, such as his height, but then goes on to state the obvious in a later chapter (just in case the reader is too dumb to get it).

Equality 7-2521 is unique, does productive work, and takes pride in his work (all of which corresponds to Rand's objectivist philosophy), in contrast to the collective (society has actually regressed in science - the newest invention is the candle) which insists on equal misery and the good of all men. Rand seems to have created a superman (her own Zarathustra, even though she is often critical of Nietzsche), a figure who must overcome the irrational world and the irrational man - saved only by their pride and self-esteem - such as her hero in Anthem, Equality 7-2521.

This was my first Ayn Rand fiction work, and I honestly can't figure out why Rand is so popular.

Some more of my thoughts about Rand at the following link:

http://wanderingreveries.blogspot.com/2009/08/ay-ay-ayn-rand.html

[Deja Q]

1. Ayn was a nut and she was probably a fan of Hitler too

[Lost-in-FL]

11. Actually, no.

White Supremacists and Nazis were a bunch of iliterate assholes playing the "oppression" card to her. I read that somewhere... on "The Virtue of Selfishness". It had a chapter on racism. About the only thing I agreed w her.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. You have to read Atlas Shrugged

until then you don't know what dreadful is.

[pansypoo53219]

13. i tried to read that.

couldn't go past the 1st page and i read wuthering heights.

[David Zephyr]

3. I read all of her books when I was young. Anthem was a joke.

I won't ruin the "end", but it is pure Rand. Yuk.

[alphafemale]

4. I bookmarked this awhile back Best send up Ayn I've ever seen.

I am talking spot on perfect.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1481845

[Warpy]

5. Rand is especially popular among young males

who think they'll set the world ablaze with their brilliance if only the old and stodgy will get out of their way.

Once they start getting old and stodgy, she starts to look ridiculous to them.

It's very rare you find an Objectivist grownup. Most of them have lived privileged lives with few challenges to what is a very silly reactionary philosophy.

Congratulations on managing to plow through the least readable of all her screeds.

[litlady]

14. Right on! It is hard to be so selfish if you have actually lived life. :) nt

[Chulanowa]

6. Ayn Rand is... weird

Her writing is sort of like what would happen if Marquis de Sade were a McCarthyist and decided to commit his thoughts to writing. It's cot the weird pseudosexual / commie witchhunt / boring lecture thing going. Each and every book is the same. Individualist superman takes on collectivist trolls, and wins without ever expressing emotion, only a bland square-jawed, letex doll version of manliness, as defined by a disturbed Russian emigré.

[non sociopath skin]

9. In the tradition of the very worst political satire ...

... Rand sets up purely imaginary caricature incompetent left-wing "degenerates" and then has her sub-Marvel Ubermenschen defeat them (though, even then, it takes them the best part of a thousand pages)

She really does have some claim to be the worst best-selling author ever. She makes Dan Brown read like Ernest Hemingway!

The Skin

[Chulanowa]

10. Dan Brown manages things like "Plot" and "Character"

He's scraping hte bottom of the barrel, sure, but at least he's still inside the barrel. Ayn is the smelly millipede living in the damp crevice beneath the barrel

[mikeargo]

7. Do her Freeper fans know...

That she was an athiest who loathed organized religion?

[The_Commonist]

8. My favorite Ayn Rand moment:

[jwirr]

12. LOL. What comes around goes around.

[litlady]

15. Interesting blog and I agree in general.

Though many philosophies have flaws, I have long found objectivism selfish and also contradictory if not lived in a vacuum.

[niccolos_smile]

16. Thank you n/t