On Saturday The New York Times published an interesting article on one of Mr. Greenspan’s, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, favorite books: “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.
Now I have to admit the the name Ayn Rand did ring a bell, but that was about it.
A few quotes from the article:
‘The book is “Atlas Shrugged”, Ayn Rand’s glorification of the right of individuals to live entirely for their own interest.
For years, Rand’s message was attacked by intellectuals whom her circle labeled “do-gooders”, who argued that individuals should also work in the service of others. Her book was dismissed as an homage to greed. Gore Vidal described its philosophy as “nearly perfect in its immorality.”'
‘The book was released to terrible reviews. Critics faulted its length, its philosophy and its literary ambitions. Both conservatives and liberals were unstinting in disparaging the book; the right saw promotion of godlessness, and the left saw a message of “greed is good”. Rand is said to have cried every day as the reviews came out.’
'Rand had a reputation for living for her own interest. She is said to have seduced her most serious reader, Nathaniel Branden, when he was 24 or 25 and she was at least 50. Each was married to someone else. In fact, Mr. Britting confirmed, they called their spouses to a meeting at which the pair announced their intention to make the mentor-protégé relationship a sexual one.
“She wasn’t a nice person, ” said Darla Moore, vice president of the private investment firm Rainwater Inc. “But what a gift she’s given us.”’
All this made me fairly curious and I decided to buy the book. (Although I’m not too fond of novels of more than six hundred pages.)