I think I have earned the right to make fun of Ayn Rand's fiction. Not only have I read Atlas Shrugged, but also The Fountainhead, We the Living, and Anthem. That last one was like reading a poor man's version of Brave New World.
The only thing I learned from reading those novels was that Ayn Rand must have grown up in Lineland (1)
But Keith Lockitch from the Ayn Rand institute has released a statement regarding his thoughts on the movie Expelled. The only reason I bring it up is because it has a very succinct one-liner that summarizes the actions of those who support intelligent design extremely well.
Intelligent design advocates will do anything to advance their views--except science.
Now if only I could get my hands on the original draft of Atlas Shrugged in which Rand actually named every single character Mary Sue (2).
(1) Because all of her characters were uni-dimensional. There, I'm done making fun.
(2) Okay, now I'm really done.
3 comments:
I find it so odd that people still, ahem, worship the woman. (Have you ever checked out any of the Ayn Rand fansites?)
I read Atlas Shrugged and rather liked it as a fourteen-year-old. But of course the book's written at the level of a fourteen-year-old's The World is Black and White, No Gray, sort of mindset. But as an adult??? I'm with you.
Ayn Rand was so vehemently opposed to religion, I could understand why one of her followers would denounce "Expelled" on religious grounds.
On the other hand, Rand was such a believer in the maverick who bucks the establishment and plays by his own rules that I could see how they would be ecstatic about Ben Stein trying to go against the grain of established academia.
Can you imagine a person with such cognitive dissonance, being pulled emotionally to opposite and equally strong desires? Can you? Do you have the idea of such a person in your mind? Congratulations. You just imagined a Randian character who follows Randian principles but is yet more emotionally complex than any character than Rand herself ever created. Irony?
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