Monday, August 22, 2011

Goddess of the Market Ayn Rand and the American Right a Book by Jennifer Burns

When I was in college, in Art school getting a BFA, I spent most of my time in Art studios making paintings, prints, and photographs.  I did take Spanish classes during lunch, but I guess I missed out on things like Philosophy, Psychology, and Economics.
 I spent most of last year's free time reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. 
 Eventually the book fell apart as I took notes on quartered pieces of discarded printer paper.
I did find the film version of the first part of the book, which was only shown in a few sparse theaters.  It was done in a cold flat format, straight out of the book's pages, but not in the style of the Fountainhead film.  It was panned, for good reason because if you had not read the book, the film wouldn't make much sense.  The Fountainhead had wonderful actors and was guided by Ayn Rand herself.  She was a screen writer since her youth and came to the United states from Russia and became a successful Hollywood writer.  
The book by Ms. Burns was incredibly well researched and skillfully written.   There was so much anecdotal information about the personal lives of Ayn Rand, her faithful and long suffering husband, her followers and her critics, I had an renewed understanding about Atlas Shrugged.  
An interesting photo, included in Ms. Burns' book was a scene of a street with a large billboard with the "Who is John Galt" slogan.  She relates how a young Ted Turner put up 200 of these signs in the Southwest. 
If you are open to reading another viewpoint of Economics, Objectivism, and haven't read Atlas Shrugged, (1069 pages) give it a try.  If you have read this classic, delve into the world of Ayn Rand as chronicled by Jennifer Burns.

3 comments:

diane b said...

She sounds an interesting author.

Bella Bheag said...

If only I had time to read....

Acornmoon said...

How my bookbinding friends would love to get their hands on that book!

Keep safe, I hear the hurricane is heading your way.