Saturday, October 24, 2009

"Howard Roark in New Delhi"

Jennifer Burns writes for Foreign Policy about the surprising popularity of Rand's "The Fountainhead." Rand's popularity in India has been visible for a while - check out the Google search figures - and it's understandable why. One of the positive uses of Rand is that she's useful to people who are looking for a way out of an oppressive religion. Anecdotally, I've noticed a lot of people on Objectivist fora are ex-Christian fundys or similar, and who for whom Rand is a liberating force. This is a good thing, obviously, though it sometimes also has the effect of jumping out of the frying pan into a frying pan that's on "simmer"... Anyway, enjoy.

3 comments:

Damien said...

Daniel Barnes,

That's an interesting Article Daniel. Thanks for showing it to us.

Anonymous said...

A beauty pageant Queen cites the Fountainhead as her favourite book? Err...wow.

Anonymous said...

I was surprised to see several volumes of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged at Kashmere Gate bus terminus in New Delhi, spread out on newspaper among the discarded peanut shells and betel nut stains, when I was there in the autumn of 2006.

Unlike the other pulp paperback fiction (heh) on display, hers were new.