English
Ayn Rand was a woman of many talents. She grew up in The Soviet Union, under the rule of Josef Stalin. She managed to escape to the US in the 1920's. There she worked with scritpwriting and was also an extra in the classic movie "King of Kings" (1927).
After a while she managed to get published as an author. Her first novel was "We, the living" (1936); which she herself credits as her most autobiographical book. The setting in the novel is the Soviet Union during the 1920's and tells of the misery that common man experiences during that time. It's a very strong novel.
"Anthem" is a short novel or maybe rather a long short story. The story takes place in the future and tells of a totalitarian communistic society there "I" is a forbidden word; almost a forgotten concept.The idea of language as incapable of critism towards the state is a theme that resurfaces in George Orwells "1984"; published in 1949, just a little more than 10 years after "Anthem". When I read "Anthem" for the first time I got the feeling of the ending scene in George Lucas classic "THX 1138".
The first book I read by Ayn Rand was "The fountainhead". That is one f the few books that I think has a better Swedish title. To translate the Swedish title back to English would only confuse the reader, so you just have to take my word for it. The novel is a story of love, the individual as a driving power and architecture. The intensity that the main character feels for architecture is really enormous and inspiring. The novel is a cry for the individual freedom and will. It is also very clearly against organized religion. One of the architectual works that are described in the novel is of a atheist temple. During my year in the US I read a great deal written by Ayn Rand and also participated in a writing contest about her ideas.
"Atlas Shrugged" became Ayn Rand's final novel. After writing it, she spent the rest of her life to her philosophy "Objectivism." "Atlas shrugged" is a massive book, just like "The fountainhead". The theme is: What would happen if the worlds leading industrialists and businessmen would go on strike? The book describes her philosophy with an exciting story. John Galt is one of the main characters and the most important question is "Who is John Galt?". The challange for the reader is to find out who John Galt is and what drives him. The book is very well written and thought-provoking.
Ayn Rand worked with her philosophy until her death in 1982.Later in her life she became addicted to some form of amphetamins and made some bad descisions.What is really interesting is that her successor and legal heir has turned her philosophy into a sect. This is really ironic. Some of the main thought in Ayn Rand's philosophy and thinking was to reject religion, collectivism and sects.The official webpage for her philosophy is run by her successor Leonard Peikoff. The page (aynrand.org) contains a lot of useful information; but you can clearly see that you can't understand the philosophy without taking their courses... (Scientology, anyone?). Another sign of the gpage being bpart of a sect is their call for donations. The courses really seem like sect courses. You take the courses step by step to learn how to use Rand's ideas in your own life. The one thing that can be said about Rand's philosophy is that it isn't that complicated. By reading her novels and her non-fiction literature you can get a very good insight in what her ideas are wihtout expensive courses. Still, her philosophy is another sign how easy it is for good ideas to turn in to a sect.
There is also another movement devoted to Rands ideas; "The objectivism centre" that seems to distance itself from the official movement. I can't seem to understand the difference myself, it seems very complicated. Contact me if you now more about this!
When I was going to read "The living" I tried to loan it from the library in Umeå, Sweden. I found that the book was in storage and hence not easy loanable. I could still loan it but my curiosity drove me to ask why it wasn't more available. The reason; according to the librarian was that during the 70's Rand's ideas were considered fascistic. There is a tendncy to see book that have something against communism are fascistic here in Sweden. I meet this kind of thinking all the time. What you need to consider is that Ayn Rand was against ALL totalitarian ideologies and societies that limits the individual freedom. George Orwell was a communist until he wen to the Soviet Union and realised that the idea did not work in reality. Many in Sweden see him as a right-wing fanatic after "1984" but that book is against all totalitarian regimes... Another interesting point is that Paul Verhoevens fantastic movie "Starship Troopers" was seen as a fascist movie in Sweden by reviewers who hadn't even seen the movie. By connection everything written by Robert A. Heinlein was also fascistic... The movie does use the style of Hitler's filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. But it is in no way fascistic, it describes how a future society might look like.
I can recommend Rand's books to read to anyone. You can read her non-fiction books as well. Beware the courses, though...