Ayn Rand's Revenge

[Dave Monroe]

Rand’s particular intellectual contribution, the thing that makes her
so popular and so American, is the way she managed to mass market
elitism — to convince so many people, especially young people, that
they could be geniuses without being in any concrete way
distinguished. Or, rather, that they could distinguish themselves by
the ardor of their commitment to Rand’s teaching. The very form of her
novels makes the same point: they are as cartoonish and sexed-up as
any best seller, yet they are constantly suggesting that the reader
who appreciates them is one of the elect.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/books/review/Kirsch-t.html

Ayn Rand
and the World She Made
by Anne C. Heller

http://knopfdoubleday.com/aynrand/

Cf. ...

Mafia
123; authoress of three 1000+ page novels centered on Heroic Love
Theory; wife of Winsome; 217; 348; "a fucking fascist," 349; 357;
360-61

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/v/alpha/m.html

Mafia
According to Molly Hite in Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas
Pynchon , "Mafia is a parody of Ayn Rand, whose influence was at its
peak in the early sixties when V. first appeared." (p.162, fn.13)

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/v/extra/eti.html#mafia
http://www.thomaspynchon.com/v/alpha/m.html