Ayn Rand

[Dave Monroe]

.. well, it's nice--maybe even feisty--to see we can play nice together
on something, and I'm glad to see my powers of textual detection are
indeed working to some degree.  Thankfully not having to deal with yr
self-styled "Objectivists" (a word they've now ruined for yr Neue
Sachlichkeit as well as yr William Carlos Williams), I've long since
petered out on keeping up with the literature, but I did indeed get
around to Mary Gaitskill's Two Girls, Fat and Thin.  It's interesting
and instructive to read teeviews on amazon.com here--Rand fans don't
seem to understand that it's a satire.  Felt obliged to post my own two
cents there, naturally.  Didn't get around to Barbara Branden's The
Passion of Ayn Rand, though I'm sure it would be interesting and
instructive as well.  Really just didn't want to be seen with it,
ultimately.  Have to set an example for the kids.   There has been a
book or two published on objectivist aesthetics recently, but ... but
you might also be interested in Gen H. Bell-Villada's The Pianist Who
Like Ayn Rand: A Novella and 13 Stories.  GHB-V has also written useful
critical works on Borges, Garcia Marquez and aestheticism (Art for Art's
Sake and Literary Life).   And, to be a completist, do hope you've seen
that "Simpsons" episode where Maggie ends up reenacting The Great Escape
at the Ayn Rand School for Tots ...