100 years of Ayn Rand

Today marks the 100th year since Ayn Rand's birth in St. Petersburg, Russia (Feb. 2, 1905). If you want her full bio, I recommend the DVD Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life. In a nutshell, Ayn Rand escaped Russia, came to the USA, wrote some great fiction, and developed her controversial philosophy--Objectivism.

Now, there is a cliched attitude towards those who have read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. We all turn into arrogant jerks for a year or so, then we forget it and move out of the "phase." It's that I'm-a-sophomore-in-college-know-it-all-better-than-you mentality that seems to rub some people the wrong way. I was guilty of this--I did cop a huge attitude back in the day. I dropped the attitude, but I never did "grow out of" the ideals that Rand sparked.

In a time when fiction was dominated by Naturalistic stories about the common man (how man is), The Fountainhead showed us a Romantic hero in Howard Roark (how man should be). In a time when socialism was sneaking its way into America's politics, Atlas Shrugged showed us what would happen if our economy's "prime movers" shrugged and took a vacation. In a time when subjectivism was the popular philosophy in our universities, Rand's nonfiction offered an objective view in ethics (The Virtue of Selfishness), epistemology/metaphysics (Philosophy: Who Needs It?), economics (Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal) and aesthetics (The Romantic Manifesto).

But really, Ayn Rand gave us an ideal for which to strive. I didn't merely admire her characters, I wanted to be more like them. I didn't just read through her philosophy, I wanted to integrate it into my own. If you haven't read her novels, I recommend them highly as they can be enjoyed on the surface as "good reads." Her writing is precise and entertaining. Her storytelling is vivid and interesting. If you don't feel the need to go too deep into the philosophy behind the story--they are great as works of fiction on their own.

To check out an "online exhibit" and bio: http://aynrand100.org

To check out her writing (in a new 100 year aniversary edition), here's Amazon's selection:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Ayn%20Rand/103-2810972-4246234