Literary News

[miguel1984]

Many thanks for all the responses. I will only add this: I read a lot about Rand in the past few hours and, now that I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that Rand was indirectly responsible of ruining people's lives too, as Hubbard did.

Think about it: Alan Greenspan was a big fan of Rand and even wrote letters to her, so presumably he was influenced by her, even after he was appointed as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Considering how it all went bust in 2008 and Greenspan's responsibility in some decisions that led to the subprime mortgage crisis, we can conclude that Rand had an indirect responsibility in that too.

In fact, he wrote this in a letter to Rand: "Atlas Shrugged is a celebration of life and happiness. Justice is unrelenting. Creative individuals and undeviating purpose and rationality achieve joy and fulfillment. Parasites who persistently avoid either purpose or reason perish as they should."

Also, Alan Moore is ####ing brilliant; reading a single interview with him (and I read an insane amount of them) can really help put things into perspective. Neil Gaiman said the only problem that Moore has is that he is a genius.

[miguel1984]

By the way, I don't think Satanism is either a pagan or atheist disease. It seems to me that Satanists just want to be The Rolling Stones to Christianity's The Beatles, the bad boys or something like that. And Rand IS vulgar.

Also, Libertarians are like rat poison: 95% of it is harmless, but the remaining 5% kills you. For example, I agree with the indiviual freedoms they defend, like the decriminalization of drug use, the right of women to abort and the separation of Church and State, but what turns me off on them is their stance against taxation, public schooling and healthcare; in fact, it seems to me they defend those individual freedoms purely to look good, while it is the second part that is the most important to them. If they got rich, it is thanks to the system others created and maintained, through taxation, hard work, blood, sweat and tears. Even Adam Smith said that in order for true Libertarianism to occur, you must feed all children first, or something of that tenor.

Stephen King said it best: "You can't live the American Dream without America."

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I know, I saw a documentary about Rand's influence on this stuff but however big an influence she was, I think Greenspan gets the blame for what he did. Unless the ghost of Ayn Rand bullied him into it.

She was influential for sure but most of these people weren't willing to suffer for their own beliefs like Steve Ditko, who was seemingly just as willing to starve to death as Howard Roark from the unwillingness to compromise.
Her calling religion "mental slavery" is completely glossed over by most of them.

It's not that different from when far right politicians find a scientist who says something they find validating and comforting. They'll use that but not care about anything else the scientist believes.

It's like "Wow! You mean there are philosophers and scientists who will justify my behaviour? What? They don't like guns?... let's just forget about that."

[miguel1984]

Well, that is why I said "indirectly responsible."

[miguel1984]

I am amazed that there are still cults hanging aroung this day and age, you know?: Transcendental Meditation, The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project, for example, along Scientology and others. The world must be really ####ed up if people are looking at these cults for answers.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I didn't know Transcendental Meditation was a cult. I thought it was just a way of relaxing and focusing.

[miguel1984]

I have read some critical articles saying it is a cult; for example, they say the mantras they give to people actually are names of Hindu deities, among other things that are much worse than that. It saddens me that David Lynch is now the figurehead of the movement.

Here are a lot of critics against TM: http://www.suggestibility.org/.

[bendk]

NYT Book Review Picks 10 Best Books of 2016


I've had my eye on The Vegetarian by Han Kang for a while.
The North Water by Ian McGuire sounds great. (Thanks, Pan Michael)
Sartre's Lovecraftian paranoia in At The Existentialist Cafe also sounds intriguing and pretty funny.

What appeals to you?

[bendk]

The New Scream Queens | Literary Hub

[qcrisp]

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

I didn't know Transcendental Meditation was a cult. I thought it was just a way of relaxing and focusing.

Way back I got a weird vibe from the Transcendental Meditation movement. I suppose a weird vibe doesn't mean much, especially remembered after years, in that I can't give the details - but hearing it called a cult does not seems strange to me in the least.