Becoming Indian
1 week ago
Ayn Rand: An Ideal Remembered
I close friend of mine recently
gifted me a documentary on Ayn Rand, and I decided to watch it this hot
afternoon. As I got myself ready in a plush chair while the DVD churned in the laptop
with considerable noise, I tried to remember why in the past 2 years I had
almost forgotten everything about Rand and her writing?
At the time I had read Rand
(Fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged), I was quite in love with it. My eyes were
not keen enough to notice the wooden prose and straightforward style then, but
my own intellect was alighted with passion. Rand, to me, was and is a great
philosopher and story teller - her strong sense of characterization and
portrayal of human reason & emotion is soul piercing. She is definitely not a
literary genius as the ones that I’ve been reading in the past year – but that
being said, she had a great influence on me as a person. But also, I wouldn't
like to say that I am molded by her philosophy, because that's not the truth.
The reason I like her so much is that she was one of the first and perhaps very
few persons whom I have met, who happen to think quite exactly as I do. She fought for the same things that I've strived for. The importance of individual.
I remember, reading through parts
of Fountainhead and Atlas, I had almost cried. Because in those moments, I was
suddenly not alone. I had a feeling that there was someone else in the world,
who felt the same, who felt quite exactly the same. That one can’t be servile to other. That one has a right to one’s own
happiness. And now watching her documentary brought all those passionate
memories back to me. That Ayn Rand phase of my life. How did I forget all about
it?
It was also pleasantly surprising
to know that in childhood Rand was quite anti-social, and did not have friends.
It helps me to know that I have not been the only one living life in solace.
And her ideas of Capitalism and selfish reason have never failed to rouse me. It's
not surprising to see that her novels are on top list of modern library's
readers’ choice (#1 and #2). For some reason, I've hopped on to pursuing the board's list
on the left lately. But I have always wanted to find a guy like Roark; I never
saw him so far, and perhaps will never be able to. I doubt if such a person
exists. The world of Ayn Rand and her great men are now left behind in my
memory. But why?
Oh yes, now I remember why I had
forgotten all about Ayn Rand in those past years. Because you don't often are
conscious of the ideals you inherently follow. You just believe. Because you don't count every
breath you take. You just breathe.
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Current Book: "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf (Read Woolf and go to bed. Nothing more could be blissful.)
Current Music: "Titanium" by David Guetta ft. Sia (I listen to this when I'm feeling low)
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Current Book: "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf (Read Woolf and go to bed. Nothing more could be blissful.)
Current Music: "Titanium" by David Guetta ft. Sia (I listen to this when I'm feeling low)
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- Tanya
- My little body is aweary of this great world. An Indian PhD student horsing around in Europe.
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8 comments:
Ayn Rand screwed me up quite bad....but damn she was right all along in doing so.
I love the last two lines of your post! Btw, I agree with you that she may not be a literary genius, but her philosophy is definitely work of genius.
@ Bheesm, O_O now that's interesting.
@ Shivani, Thankuuu! :D
Hi, Came via Indiblogger.
Ayan Rand, a lovely post.
All young people have to read Ayan rand, and forget about her, later. :-)
Thanks.
Ayn Rand is sick, malinformed and sadistic. Just read one sentence of this abhorrent and immoral monetary worship. Rand envisions this simplistic, decadent world where currency is supreme, which places a dollar sign on everything, even human life. This monetary ideology fuels the concentration of wealth without fail.
Perhaps one day, expressing an admiration for Ayn Rand will kill a career in business or politics as surely as admiring Hitler or Stalin does today.
LoL, calm down Gtm.
Well written! I'm yet to find out why there is so much hype about Ayn Rand. I haven't read a single book of hers yet. I would've read it in college, but didn't do so for a silly reason - there was this girl in college who was a die hard fan of Ayn Rand, but thought that the Lord of the Rings was crap. Blasphemy of epic proportions! Since then, I've (wrongly) developed this notion that people who like Ayn Rand, hate Tolkien. And I sorta assumed that the reverse would be true - people who liked Tolkien hated Rand. Hahaha :P
@Gtm - You definitely seem to hate her. Are you an LOTR fan? :P
It's not surprising to know that there might be people out there who like Tolkein and hate Rand, or vice versa. Both of them are very diverse writers, Tolkein a champion of literary fantasy and Rand a champion of individualistic philosophy. And not everyone has diverse interests and intellect, do they?
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