Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Is she hot?

Some questions which this blogger has been meaning to ask people for a long time now.

1. Who is Ayn Rand?
2. Why is everybody after her?
3. How did every soul in this sweet little world of this blogger, except himself, happen to read her?
4. While this blogger understands the teenagers’ adoration to works like The Catcher in the Rye, which address their youthful angst, this unconditional universal admiration among the youth for Ayn Rand is not really as obvious to him. (And, yeah, he is old.)

Some disclaimers that should have rather gone without saying.
1. This blogger hasn’t read The Catcher in the Rye as well.
2. He hardly reads books.
3. He might know the answer for all the questions above.

The blogger’s note: Though I was meaning to write this for quite sometime, it was this comment I wrote on a post at this much likeable blog (on which I first stumbled upon, I believe, during a discussion on God, no less, but didn’t read much then), that pushed the publish button.

I am the sort of reader (who can hardly be called so) who saw an Ayn Rand books[sic] at every house/place/room/blog he bumped on to, and never bothered to pick one up.
I can quote two reasons.
One, the word 'objectivism' to which she is associated to (and perhaps attributed to, as well) was very uncomfortable (and close to nauseating) for my taste, or the lack of it.
Two (and the truer reason), I hardly read.

Now, those were some really lousy loose words that were written in jest.
Neither am I very uncomfortable or baffled with an objectivistic outlook, nor do I find it remotely nauseating. Just that I don’t feel like it; leave aside, reading a book on it.

In fact, objectivism, when it makes sense talking about “selfishness” et al., seems too obvious; and hence becomes, um, trivial.

Rand fans, pardon my ignorance and do tell me what I have been missing all along.

P.S.:-
1. Not to mention that I find nothing uncomfortable or nauseating.
2. When I say ‘objectivism’, I mean whatever I could make out of it on hearsay.

Last modified (reframed the lines and added a little more) this post at 6:29 p.m. to induce a bit of objectivity to the post, much ironically.

5 comments:

  1. Well, I am a Rand fan. But I dont see anything in the name of 'ignorance' in whatever you said and by no standard on earth are you missing something. Forget it.

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  2. me neither! never wanted to read her. reason- same as your first reason. I don't read sheldon too. Don't worry, it's not as if we missed a great work or anything.

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  3. Of course, Viji. This was written (apparently, long ago) in jest, designed to deride objectivism, individualism and suchlike, and that one author who is invariably associates with these stuff!

    Or, may be, I should have just said, "Yaaru indha Ayn Rand? Enna kulam, enna gothram?"

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  4. Pardon the typo. I meant, "that one author who is invariably associated with these stuff!"

    P.S.:- It feels good to have comments on half-dead blogs.

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  5. ohh- hehe. my bad!

    Just checking out your old posts and dropping comments wherever I have something to say.. you have a nice blog here.
    -viji

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