Fw: 2/2/22

[Tom Stanton]

Bret James Logue wrote:
> On Tue, 4 Feb 1997, Tom Stanton wrote:
> > My son (16) has read the major [Rand] stuff & was entralled...

> I have always wanted to write a novel that would get latched onto by the
> brooding teenage-intellectuals-to-be.

Active voice, clear-cut characters, good/evil & you're 50%
there!

> Serving on the Applications Committee of a small desert college, I learned
> that personal reading lists for mid teens, and their personality from it,
> tend to fall into a few basic catagories:
> 1)Ayn Randians with their hyper-individualism
> 2)Pirsig's Zensters
> 3)Sci-fi, D&D novels
> 4)Camus and Existentialism (often with generous bits o' Sartre)
> 5)(rarely) a dip into the Nietzchean form of elitism

My son's done 1, 4, and 5. Wants to major in Philosophy. He
really enjoys Big Discussions & does well for his age (gosh,
do I sound like a parent, or what?)/

> Is there space in the young one's minds for Mr. Pynchon.  If only more
> people read CoL49 instead of Rand or Pirsig.  Both of whom I
> think have only detrimental effects.

I brooded over this, but my wise & lovely wife noted that
the more I protested, the more valuable Rand became, & that
if all his teen rebellion consisted of was Rand (as opposed
to sex/drugs/R&R), I should count myself lucky.

Tom...