But, Ayn...There's No I in Ego...

God only knows why I decided to read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged within 6 months of each other. I loved Anthem in High School and moderately enjoyed We The Living, so why not just go balls to the wall? I spend at least 2 hours on a bus everyday. High page numbers don't scrrr me. Holy objective-reality-rational-egoism OVERLOAD. After 694 pages of The Fountainhead, I did indeed have a bit of a capitalism, rational self-interest, anti establishment hangover. I also had a strengthened female boner for early century modern architecture and a strong suspicion that Rand stalked Frank Lloyd Wright. We're talking probably stole some of his man panties. I'm not here to point fingers. Anyway. The bulky bastard was rather enjoyable, despite a brief instance of catching myself thinking, "maybe republicans aren't that bad...". Man is great! Never compromise! Values are based in reason! Purpose, Production and Pride! Freeeee Willy!

I survived. I was feeling good. Time for the big gun...the magnum opus; Atlas Shrugged. I'm currently on page 890 with 179 remaining. Did I mention the text is about 6pt? The book isn't bad. The first 700 pages were pretty depressing. Then it let up a little! Then plummeted again. In all sincerity, it's inspiring and great. But listen up you little Russian БИКса. I GET IT. EVERYONE GETS IT. Socialism is bad. Capitalism is good. The strong rule, the weak drool. Boo on intellectual looting. Yay for the rational. Gooooo ego! Are you going to pound this into my face all day?

Feminists love to hate her and I don't blame them. Her portrayal of women is twisted on a ton of different levels. All women suck, except one character per book. That one is beautiful, strong, probably gets raped, and let's face it...she's still no man. But I can't hold it against Rand. Not only did she live in a different time, she herself looked as though she belonged in The Return to Oz. Who are we to judge the disastrous consequences of that to her ideas of womanhood?

Really, I wouldn't and couldn't argue with any of her critics. She is over the top and melodramatic. But how can you really hate on someone whose only point (albeit made overandoverandoverandoverandover again) is "fuck everyone but yourself...the end". She created the term "Intellectual Property". We can also thank her for kitschy, pretentious products like these that make the owner feel self important while simultaneously guaranteeing that they never get laid.

In all her literary endeavors Rand sets out to create heroes. And yet, all of her male protagonists are blonde. This goes against the very thing she so ardently defends and endorses; reason. Hank Rearden, the strong willed steel industrialist: "The glare cut a moment's wedge across his eyes, which had the color and quality of pale blue ice - then across the black web of the metal column and the ash-blond strands of his hair" (Atlas Shrugged 147). Francisco d'Anconia, Leo Kovalensky, the "gold-haired pirate Ragnar Danneskjöld" (Atlas Shrugged 882), and most offensively John Galt. The only exception is Howard Roark, who fares even worse as a firecrotch. Rand stated her fiction's purpose was to portray her vision of an ideal man: "not man as he is, but man as he might be and ought to be." (The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature). I'm confused. So...man ought to be a pussy?

You've got to be kidding me. I almost just deleted this whole post and threw my book out the window after discovering this. She was right. The world IS deteriorating. I have no words.