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100 Most Popular Works of Fiction
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PBS set out to produce a list of America’s 100 favorite works of fiction. The alphabetical list (the books aren't ranked) was released this spring, based on a poll of more than 7,000 American readers. The results of the poll were winnowed down by an advisory panel of 'literary industry professionals' using a few rules: The books had to be published (though not necessarily written) in English, with a series like 'Harry Potter' counted as one title, and there could be no more than one book per author."
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Atlas Shrugged? Oh, please. :eyebrow:
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It doesn't say great, it says popular. Had a roomy in college who adored that book. It validated his behavior as a selfish prick.
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I've read 16 of those. All the Left Behind series, Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time...
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My count is 39, though some are series. There might be a couple more, but if I don't remember whether I read them, it doesn't count.
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27. Some were really good. Some I had to read in school. A couple were in both categories.
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21, I think. But a couple of them I only read the first in the series, and a couple I only know I read them for school, I don't actually remember anything about them.
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19 here, some forgettable, a couple permanent, like Dune.
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31 if I count Atlas Shrugged which I feel is one of the stupidest books ever written. Who is John Galt? Who cares?
As you can probably tell, I have a violent dislike of Ayn Rand who has had a negative impact on people's outlook to this very day. Just another Russian troll. Mueller should investigate her. |
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30. and then there are about 10 that I started but decided not to continue pretty early on. like Dorian Gray and War and Peace. Can't remember why I hated them.... And some I have absolutely no intention of picking up. Like 50 shades.
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38. HUH. I didn't think it would be that many.
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She was originally from a very wealthy family of Jewish bankers until 1917 when the Russian Revolution turned everything up side down. Miz Rand (not-her-real-name) managed to escape to the US where she spent the rest of her life nursing her resentments and coming up with a philosophy of complete selfishness that was as extreme in its own way as communism is. Things you never wanted to know... ;) |
Ayn Rand was right. her books were oversimplified and slightly ridiculous, but the main concepts were true.
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Not even a little bit.
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cmon. a little bit.
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All, right, a little bit. But only because things she said weren't wrong because she said them; she was wrong because she said the things. So she may have said things, incidentally, that weren't wrong, during her life. But not when she was trying to make a point.
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so you're saying a broken clock is right twice a day?
the overreaching message of Atlas Shrugged was the injustice experienced by the tycoon at the hands of the needy via governmental regulation and appropriation. But to me, the message was that you work for what you get, and deserve to keep it. If you don't work for it, you are not owed anything. I do believe that society cannot exist without caring and providing for those unable to do for themselves. I also know that there are many many people that take advantage and abuse the systems that exist to support those that are truly not able to provide for themselves. Ayn's thing was to shine light on the ones that demand support from those who are capable of helping them without respect for the desire of the capable. She also had a lot to say about improving yourself and not being a slug. I have a quote on the top of my monitor at work that reads, "It is not acceptable to do less than you are able to do." That is a paraphrasing of a blurb from another book I read, but it's pretty 'Randian' Quote:
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Galt's Gulch was populated by "the tech guy" from science fiction shows, who could produce a magic gadget solo, between scenes, that would solve the problem of the day. Plus, they resented all the people suffering from the problem of the day. A population of Scottys from Star Trek, but without the heart. Basically, a society of Ricks, from Rick and Morty. |
A society CAN exist without caring for moochers. But only at the expense of the truly needy. You can't differentiate effectively between the two. The supposed Utopia in the magic mountain at the end of the book was quite silly, I agree. But it doesn't completely invalidate everything she says in the book(s). I think there is something to be said about the value of an employer in our culture.
Without the risk and work those folks undertake, most of us are unemployed, and therefore unable to support our own families. If the government gets involved in redistributing their wealth, they harm everyone that works for them, and simultaneously dissuade others from rising to take their places. I'd like to thank Mr Robert Nappen for being rich and owning 3 dealerships as a sort of hobby/investment. I've made a good living working for him these 14 years. I've had that conversation with his son. He always turns it around and thanks me for doing the work, making a profit and protecting his business from liability.. but I know he's worth more to this society than I am. |
And she wrote all that while collecting welfare. :eyebrow:
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I think Ayn Rand can be understood for what she was and what she represented, without being worshiped, vilified, or held accountable for who we think reads her books or what we think they got out of it.
Artistically, I think her books are a magnificent translation of stark ideals into compelling, if arguably one-dimensional, characters, who perfectly embody the concepts she is making her case for. Almost like comic-book heroes. I don't take her characters to be intended as poetically soft and mysterious human enigmas. I recommend everyone who is interested in the creative arts to read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, then watch the Gary Cooper film adaptation. Ayn Rand's screenplay adaptation of the novel is an absolutely brilliant, condensed, version of the book, which loses nothing while taking up shorter space. She accomplishes this by combining characters / plot elements which embody similar concepts, effectively "collapsing" the story. A class in screenplay adaptation should be taught based on what she does here. Howard Roark, Ellsworth Toohey, Gail Wynand, Dominique Francon, and Peter Keating are remarkably relevant character archetypes for many people you will recognize dealing with. Especially Ellsworth Toohey, the ultimate string-pulling, Machiavellian sociopath. I think the ideas that Ayn Rand promotes need to explored and understood--not rejected outright, and then, like everything--in moderation-- taken as simply one "part of a well-balanced breakfast" |
In short, Fountainhead is a better Ayn Rand book than Atlas Shrugged.
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But go for Siddhartha, or anything by Herman Hesse, first.
The Glass Bead Game is a better Hesse book than Siddhartha. |
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I have no problem with characters being temperamental artists flying into rages. I have a problem with that being proposed as an ideal to be emulated. It's funny Rand chose an architect to be the hero; there's hardly a more collectivist form of creative expression. A painter is unlimited in what they can put on a canvas, but an architect has to deal with a team of experts in their own fields, any one of which may point out a reason the architect's vision needs to be modified by reality. The comic book analogy is apt. The heroes of Atlas Shrugged are the comic-book mad scientists, who invented unobtainium and perpetual motion machines in their lairs. But an architect who moves to Galt's Gulch is just a doodler without his team. |
I like Roark. Like all Rand characters, he cartoonishly adheres to stark principles, but they're good ones. Focus on an area you have passion for, and become an expert in that field. Do it because it resonates with you and comes naturally. Develop your own original ideas. Do not betray principles which you have personally verified to be sound, simply because of the pressure of those who do not possess the same expertise as you have spent a lifetime's work to develop. Pick your projects and set your parameters the way you want--because you can, because that's how good you are. Others will enjoy different forms of power, manipulation, and coercion, but if you have the strength of your own core beliefs, eventually you will still be standing upright and with your dignity intact after the winds of change have blown away the transitory and opportunistic conditions that others once believed they could use to have advantage over you. And after all, the condition of being self-realized, and the inner peace and clarity it unlocks, is the true reward that those who subsist on false power will never be able to achieve.
... I don't know enough about being an architect to know if that was the right profession to make this analogy with, but I do know that blowing up a building is a pretty flashy metaphor for the value of intellectual property --the physical object is removed, but the idea remains, and can never be removed by external force. |
Well, Roark was trying to erase the idea of the building he blew up, because it wasn't completely his. His unadulterated plans still existed on paper, and in his mind, whether he blew up the building or not. He just couldn't bear to have a building exist that incorporated some, but not all, of his plans.
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It's funny, because even though they seem like opposites, Rand's philosophy churns out the exact same entitlement problems as parents who tell their kids they can be anything they want to be. Rand says work hard for it, while helicopter parents insist inborn talent will take care of everything--but both rely on the lie that "following your dreams" is the only noble path. Sometimes you have to do shit you're overqualified for, and sometimes you find out your dreams aren't what you thought they were, and neither situation makes you a failure.
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Right, like wanting a toy, car, or job with all your might then being disappointed when you get it.
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I actually have a fav Ayn Rand quote which is "Check your premises." I find that people at either extreme of the spectrum often have flawed or even completely false premises which they attempt to use when arguing the validity of their stance. In any discussion the debate can only be useful if both sides agree on the same basic truths or "givens" as it were. |
I was stuck on the word Jewish.
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Looks like the significance is complicated.
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Every corner of our history and civilization is packed full of instances where the significance is complicated.
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