Ayn Rand is such a perfect storm of horribleness its hard to even believe she's real. Of everything you published in The-Formerly-Respectable-Religious-Journal-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, this one made me laugh the most. What a nice surprise to see it again.
Great essay. You've expressed so elegantly everything I feel about Ayn Rand. I once attempted to read Atlas Shrugged, prompted by a libertarian I worked with. I got to the part after Henry Rearden and Dagney Taggart were driving through the countryside after Rearden's success creating the new alloy. They both were bored with nature and Taggart says " You know what I miss? Billboards!" Or something like that. I closed the book and never picked it up again.
I really have never understood why Ayn Rand ever got any attention. I was forced to read Anthem in middle school and still feel twinges remembering the apparently triumphant ending wherein the protagonist lifts a banner that reads "ego." If it's gross to a twelve-year-old, you'd think the better informed might not be so taken in, although I fear the opposite is more generally the case.
In case anybody was wondering, I can confirm that the Atlas Shrugged movie was so terrible that even a teenager who actually liked Ayn Rand at the time could recognize that it was completely worthless.
Should Atlas Shrugged have been brought to the silver screen? Probably not, judging from Rotten Tomatoes. But I have a different take on Ayn Rand. Her entire life project was a response to pure evil (i.e. totalitarianism). Yes, she was an atheist and a materialist, but surely you can’t hold that against her. The virtue of her “philosophy” was in being truthful and transparent about one’s motives. Everybody pursues their own self interest. Most people attempt to cloak it as the pursuit of good. Some engage in that deception more perniciously than others, usually at the cost of other people’s freedoms. I’ll take Ayn Rand’s “egoism” over false virtue any day of the week. Enjoy your time down under.
I read a funny account somewhere regarding a party which was attended by both Rand and Friedrich Hayek. She would keep on babbling on about whatever and Hayek kept yelling at her to shut-up. I should say that a lot of libertarians who love Hayek never really read him. Ditto for Adam Smith.
I remember “The Tree of Life”. I was enthralled. I’ll never understand the people who walked out and demanded their money back, as they say happened when that film released.
As a lifelong Malick fan, I wander if you have any plans to write something (not necessarily a review) on “The Thin Red Line”? I have been drawn to that movie since I saw it as a very young lad since I saw it in the theater in 98. Perhaps the most profound war/ anti war movies ever made. It’s just one of those movies that is impossible to put in to words. It was over shadowed by “Saving Private Ryan”, which came out a couple of months before if memory serves correct, even by cinephiles. I never understood why that was.
a friend of mine wrote recently, "i find Malick's aestheticization of pseudo roman-catholic dip**** authentic-spark-of-life spiritualism to verge on fascism in the benjaminian sense" (he did not employ asterisks, but i am mindful of the author's extended family). i don't entirely agree, but i don't entirely disagree either.
Tree of Life remains my favorite (and probably most providential) cinematic experience of all time. I was deep in studying De Lubac when I saw it, and it just crashed upon me. It was an utter revelation. I left the theater a different person. I agree with you, in the end, it is a bridge between the two ways, stunningly realized. Now, as I raise my young children, I often think of the montage of the children growing to Smetana's The Moldau, which perfectly captures the chaos, joy, and exhaustion of it all.
David Bentley Hart is timely as ever. Last week a book came out from Penguin Press by an internationally bestselling, award-winning writer and philosopher titled "The Visionaries: Arendt, Beauvoir, RAND, Weil . . . and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times." [with Rand, what about the Nadir of Philosophy in Dark Times]
Hard to believe that this is hailed by NYTimes, The Guardian, and Financial Times.
Rand Among the Ruins
I’ve long held the belief that Terrence Malick’s films are as close an example we have of cinematic icons or film as prayer.
Ayn Rand is such a perfect storm of horribleness its hard to even believe she's real. Of everything you published in The-Formerly-Respectable-Religious-Journal-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, this one made me laugh the most. What a nice surprise to see it again.
This is one of my favorite DBH articles from this era.
Great essay. You've expressed so elegantly everything I feel about Ayn Rand. I once attempted to read Atlas Shrugged, prompted by a libertarian I worked with. I got to the part after Henry Rearden and Dagney Taggart were driving through the countryside after Rearden's success creating the new alloy. They both were bored with nature and Taggart says " You know what I miss? Billboards!" Or something like that. I closed the book and never picked it up again.
I really have never understood why Ayn Rand ever got any attention. I was forced to read Anthem in middle school and still feel twinges remembering the apparently triumphant ending wherein the protagonist lifts a banner that reads "ego." If it's gross to a twelve-year-old, you'd think the better informed might not be so taken in, although I fear the opposite is more generally the case.
I'm always reminded of the joke ''the worst thing the USSR ever did was give ayn rand a free degree''.
In case anybody was wondering, I can confirm that the Atlas Shrugged movie was so terrible that even a teenager who actually liked Ayn Rand at the time could recognize that it was completely worthless.
Should Atlas Shrugged have been brought to the silver screen? Probably not, judging from Rotten Tomatoes. But I have a different take on Ayn Rand. Her entire life project was a response to pure evil (i.e. totalitarianism). Yes, she was an atheist and a materialist, but surely you can’t hold that against her. The virtue of her “philosophy” was in being truthful and transparent about one’s motives. Everybody pursues their own self interest. Most people attempt to cloak it as the pursuit of good. Some engage in that deception more perniciously than others, usually at the cost of other people’s freedoms. I’ll take Ayn Rand’s “egoism” over false virtue any day of the week. Enjoy your time down under.
I read a funny account somewhere regarding a party which was attended by both Rand and Friedrich Hayek. She would keep on babbling on about whatever and Hayek kept yelling at her to shut-up. I should say that a lot of libertarians who love Hayek never really read him. Ditto for Adam Smith.
I remember “The Tree of Life”. I was enthralled. I’ll never understand the people who walked out and demanded their money back, as they say happened when that film released.
As a lifelong Malick fan, I wander if you have any plans to write something (not necessarily a review) on “The Thin Red Line”? I have been drawn to that movie since I saw it as a very young lad since I saw it in the theater in 98. Perhaps the most profound war/ anti war movies ever made. It’s just one of those movies that is impossible to put in to words. It was over shadowed by “Saving Private Ryan”, which came out a couple of months before if memory serves correct, even by cinephiles. I never understood why that was.
a friend of mine wrote recently, "i find Malick's aestheticization of pseudo roman-catholic dip**** authentic-spark-of-life spiritualism to verge on fascism in the benjaminian sense" (he did not employ asterisks, but i am mindful of the author's extended family). i don't entirely agree, but i don't entirely disagree either.
You know I've heard Rand be called the last of the enlightenment. I've also heard she died while on government welfare.
True, Cooper was not a great actor. There are so few of his films I really feel inclined to sit down and watch.
Hope you're having fun in Australia. This is one of my favorite all time pieces of your writing.
Tree of Life remains my favorite (and probably most providential) cinematic experience of all time. I was deep in studying De Lubac when I saw it, and it just crashed upon me. It was an utter revelation. I left the theater a different person. I agree with you, in the end, it is a bridge between the two ways, stunningly realized. Now, as I raise my young children, I often think of the montage of the children growing to Smetana's The Moldau, which perfectly captures the chaos, joy, and exhaustion of it all.
David Bentley Hart is timely as ever. Last week a book came out from Penguin Press by an internationally bestselling, award-winning writer and philosopher titled "The Visionaries: Arendt, Beauvoir, RAND, Weil . . . and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times." [with Rand, what about the Nadir of Philosophy in Dark Times]
Hard to believe that this is hailed by NYTimes, The Guardian, and Financial Times.