Anthem
I haven't been feeling very inspired to write recently but I've still been making occasional visits to a few of my favorite blogs. I ended up at one of the best tonight and noticed a great question: What book most represents your personality?
I thought about it for a long time but I kept coming back to my first instinct: Ayn Rand's lesser-known novella, "Anthem." Her novels are well known for their discursive approach and philosophical themes. The reader is pretty much guaranteed a paradigm-shifting experience IF he/she can slog through the verbal explosion (which most people can't/won't). "Anthem", on the other hand, is absolutely awe-inspiring. The whole novella is a perfectly-paced build up to two of the most passionately written pages in recent American literature. Actually, I almost hesitate to call it literature because the sociopolitical agenda is so strong...her work dances between propaganda and art. However, no matter how you classify it, this is one of the most personally resonant passages that I've ever read.
What about you?
I thought about it for a long time but I kept coming back to my first instinct: Ayn Rand's lesser-known novella, "Anthem." Her novels are well known for their discursive approach and philosophical themes. The reader is pretty much guaranteed a paradigm-shifting experience IF he/she can slog through the verbal explosion (which most people can't/won't). "Anthem", on the other hand, is absolutely awe-inspiring. The whole novella is a perfectly-paced build up to two of the most passionately written pages in recent American literature. Actually, I almost hesitate to call it literature because the sociopolitical agenda is so strong...her work dances between propaganda and art. However, no matter how you classify it, this is one of the most personally resonant passages that I've ever read.
What about you?
brought to you by Memphis Word Nerd at 5:56 pm
3 Comments:
I don't think anyone cares about the frequency of posting. Quality you know.
One of my favorites is GreasySkillet.org. He posts infrequently but it makes me look forward to when he does. Some of his posts are genius (type "fat elvis" in his site search box for the best post of all time).
If we all posted 12 times a day (like Wonkette, the traffic whore) blogging would die immediately.
I remember Rand's words about me... uhm... about Barry Goldwater during the '64 campaign:
"With a jaw like that, how can he lose?"
There is now no doubt in my mind that we are twins separated at birth.
Atlas Shrugged is my favourite book. Rand wrote Anthem in between The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged to solidy her philosophy of objectivism.
Reading Atlas Shrugged changed my life - it had a lot of things that I had always felt and believed, and often felt wrong because of it, written down and exemplified in a way that I was never able to even formulate in my mind. The quote I live my life by is:
"I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon
my being. I am the warrant and the sanction."
Not everyone agrees with Rand, and not everyone agrees with everything Rand said. Nevertheless, her writings changed the way I felt about myself and my life, and I'm never going to forget those lessons.
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