Yes, it sucks. That appears to be the critical verdict on the never-before-produced 1934 Rand play "Ideal", currently off-Broadway. New York Post review here, New York Times here, Backstage here.
Thanks for the links. The Backstage review quips, "Rand seems to have approved committing murder as long as the culprit is a superior person."
Objectivists would no doubt cry foul, but I think that at this stage of her life (1934), Rand's attitude was very much as described. Her unfinished novel "The Little Street" was to be a tale of a heroic murderer; "Night of January 16" celebrates heroic criminals; and in the first edition of "We the Living," Kira says it's fine to crush the masses under your boot heel if your cause is just.
Later, Rand seems to have backed away from this position ... but I wonder. The premise of "Atlas Shrugged" is that the superior people leave the inferiors to starve and die, and Rand must have taken genuine pleasure in depicting the deaths of all those philosophically incorrect souls in the Winston Tunnel disaster.
There was something small, mean, and nasty at Rand's core, which no amount of inspirational encomiums to the greatness of Man could entirely conceal.
"Rand seems to have approved committing murder as long as the culprit is a superior person."
Yep, you could imagine the objectivist outrage if say, not that they would, a Muslim playwright wrote a play where the playwright seems to have approved committing murder as long as the culprit is a muslim and the victim is not.
Daniel Barnes,
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice photograph.
Showing the art of objectivist seduction?
ReplyDeleteSteven Johnston
UK.
Rand never achieved much success in the stage or, curiously, in the movies (her first love).
ReplyDeleteWasn't Ideal one of the Great Plays at Founders College?
-Neil Parille
Yep, Ideal was a Founders Fave --
ReplyDeletehttp://aynrandcontrahumannature.blogspot.com/2007/07/compare-and-contrast.html
-Neil Parille
Thanks for the links. The Backstage review quips, "Rand seems to have approved committing murder as long as the culprit is a superior person."
ReplyDeleteObjectivists would no doubt cry foul, but I think that at this stage of her life (1934), Rand's attitude was very much as described. Her unfinished novel "The Little Street" was to be a tale of a heroic murderer; "Night of January 16" celebrates heroic criminals; and in the first edition of "We the Living," Kira says it's fine to crush the masses under your boot heel if your cause is just.
Later, Rand seems to have backed away from this position ... but I wonder. The premise of "Atlas Shrugged" is that the superior people leave the inferiors to starve and die, and Rand must have taken genuine pleasure in depicting the deaths of all those philosophically incorrect souls in the Winston Tunnel disaster.
There was something small, mean, and nasty at Rand's core, which no amount of inspirational encomiums to the greatness of Man could entirely conceal.
Bah! Bad reviews I **** 'em.
ReplyDeleteOr at least that is the objectivist attitude towards them. Remember their outlook is:
Bad review = See for it for yourself and make up your own mind
Good review = Shout it from the rooftops.
You can have your cake and eat it.
Steven Johnston
UK
"Rand seems to have approved committing murder as long as the culprit is a superior person."
ReplyDeleteYep, you could imagine the objectivist outrage if say, not that they would, a Muslim playwright wrote a play where the playwright seems to have approved committing murder as long as the culprit is a muslim and the victim is not.
Steven Johnston
UK