As always, I celebrate Ayn Rand’s birthday, February 2nd, by opening one of Ayn Rand’s novels to a random page and reading a passage. Every passage is marvelous. Today, I opened The Fountainhead to this passage (Rand [1943], 1952, 223–224, Part Two, Chapter 3), of one villain’s ironic written praise of another: “Greatness is an […]
September 2 is Atlas Shrugged Day, the anniversary of the day (in 1946) on which Ayn Rand began writing the novel. September 2 is also a significant date in the novel, and the date on which the story begins. I celebrate Atlas Shrugged Day by reading passages from the novel, often by opening the book […]
I celebrate February 2, the birthday of Ayn Rand, by opening one of her novels to a random page and reading. Today I read these two passages from The Fountainhead. “Miss Cook, I’ve read Clouds and Shrouds and it was a spiritual revelation to me. Allow me to include myself among the few who understand […]
I consider Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, the greatest work of art and most advanced human achievement. September 2 (1946) is the date on which Ayn Rand began writing the novel, and is also the date on which the novel begins. I celebrate Atlas Shrugged Day by reading passages from the novel, often by opening […]
(A slightly revised version of this post appears in Capitalism Magazine, April 17, 2011) I do not recommend the movie based—unfaithfully and ineptly, in my judgment—on Atlas Shrugged (Rand 1957) that opens today. (See my analysis of one scene here.) Instead, I urge every thoughtful individual to read the novel, again and again, and to […]
I have seen the movie, Atlas Shrugged Part 1. I do not plan to publish a review, but I have written an essay comparing one scene, viewable on the Internet, to the corresponding scene in the novel. In this essay, my secondary purpose is to judge this small part of the movie; my primary purpose […]
This morning, I celebrated the birthday of Ayn Rand. I opened Atlas Shrugged to a page at random, and began reading. The passage I read was about a great injustice committed against one of the heroes. I was reminded of great injustices in world events today, foreseen by this passage. Yet the very brilliance of […]
I love movies in the Romantic tradition of heroic characters engaged in the ingenious and passionate pursuit of important values. I love what Ayn Rand calls the “benevolent universe.” [—Added 5/2/10.] These are movies that I look forward to seeing again and again. There are many movies I have not yet seen, so I may […]
Ayn Rand’s 105th birthday was on February 2. On that day, I was immersed in unimportant details of my life. But this morning I celebrated Ayn Rand’s birthday in my favorite way. I opened up one of her novels (The Fountainhead this time) at random places and began reading. Perhaps I should perform this celebration […]
Myrhaf, who also write for The New Clarion, has an excellent post on whether to keep secrets from the reader/audience in writing fiction. In one of my plays, I made an editing change similar to the one that Myrhaf describes, but I had not conceptualized the issue so deeply.