Ayn Rand

[asterroc]

I haven't ever read Ayn Rand, and I have no intention of doing so. However, I am told that the author of the series I am currently reading, Terry Goodkind, is heavily influenced by her works, and her concepts of "objectivism" and "enlightened self interest." Anyone care to explain these concepts to me in shorter form?

Comments

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Since others have already given good summaries of Rand's philosophy, I feel okay saying this: IMNSHO, if you can get through multiple volumes of Goodkind's work, you can get through _Atlas Shrugged_. Frankly, I'd rather reread Rand than ever touch Goodkind again, and the only way I got through Atlas was pure stubbornness - I was not going to let that book get the better of me, no matter how much I hated it. After the first 3 volumes of Goodkind, I found his ideas so offensive and repulsive that I lost all respect for everything he'd written. Which is a shame; I'd enjoyed his world and plots a great deal for a while.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I don't really enjoy straight up fiction, I like Sci-Fan a LOT more, to the point where I can't get through most fiction. It's not a matter of the philosophies in the book, but the plots.

The only thing I've strongly disagreed with so far in Goodkind's writing is his criticism of having a social safety net such as welfare, and there I focused on the criticisms as a way to improve the existing system, rather than feeling that the whole system should be destroyed. The other things I've found I objectionable either were portrayed as evil (the "breaking" of young Mord Sith, the religion of the Old Word), were something the characters were working to overcome (Richard's lack of understanding about Birdin and Raina's relationship), or were something that was acceptable in the framework of that world (Kahlan's "no mercy" policy with the Imperial Order).

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

It's been several years since I read Goodkind, but I remember getting thoroughly sick of his two primary characters and their relationship, partly because repetition gets on my nerves. And it seemed like Richard just kept turning into more and more of an asshole, and Kahlan just seemed to get more abused and pathetic. Maybe I misremember how it really went, but where in the first book I liked the characters, by third one I despised all of them. Especially Richard. And I have a hard time reading books where I find the characters believably loathsome, especially when they're loathsome and misogynistic (I could get through _Atlas Shrugged_ because, while the characters were loathsome, they were so one-dimensional and fake that they didn't seem like real people).

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is Goodkind started off very well indeed, then went downhill. Books 3, 4 and 5 were awful - I almost gave up on him altogether, but book 6 was just about enjoyable enough that I'll go read the series once when he's finished writing it.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I'm more tolerant of audiobooks than text books. There's definitely repetition in his word phrasing that gets on my nerves, but I still think all the books have been pretty good. "Faith of the Fallen"'s copying of "The Fountainhead" has been the only significant downside so far IMO.