In the last week I’ve started writing a kind of philosophical autobiography. More on that later.
The relevant point is that I start it with a story about driving by a billboard stating “Who is John Galt?” when traveling through Florida last year. The reference is to a decades old book by Ayn Rand called Atlas Shrugged. I thought this old tome was dead and buried along with Ayn Rand, but it seems that Rand, her Capitalistic and Egocentric philosophy and the novel Atlas Shrugged are being resurrected, -most likely by Tea Party supporters.
So, imagine my shock when I see, premiering next month, “Atlas Shrugged, Part 1“, the movie!! It’s part 1 because the novel rivals “Lord of the Rings” in length.
Will I go see it? Most definitely. I’m ashamed to say that I was an avid supporter of Ayn Rand and her ideology when I was a teenager. (Yes, I always did things backwards. I was a conservative as a teenager and am a liberal now.) but I will go see it fearing that it will be on a par with “Battlefield Earth”, that other movie based on a book by a megalomaniac author.
It is a novelty. There is no doubt that the making of this movie at this time is politically motivated. I have to admit that it is a well written book, and is a very compelling statement of conservative idealism. it would make a good handbook for Tea Partyers. It will fuel the bi-partisan sentiment in American politics. (I will assume that Canadians are too smart to be swayed by it.) It is a deliberate and incendiary tactic. “The Fountainhead”, Rand’s other well known novel, was made into a movie in 1949, but Rand never felt that it lived up to her ideals. That’s probably because nothing could live up to her ideals, -not even herself. She was extremely depressed in the latter part of her life, feeling that she wasn’t living up to her own heroic image.
Funding for this two part epic of a literary dinosaur must have come from some pretty strange places. We shall see what we shall see.
BTW, I’m two chapters into the philosophical biography. Once I get a few more chapters I’ll consider how to publish in on the Web. It’s too long to be part of the normal Blog, so some other plan is needed.
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