caroljane

Maybe they've decided to increase her to a bimonthly rotation! Tonight there was a category, "Celebrities Favorite Novels" (or something like that), and Pat Sajak gave the $400 clue, crap I don't recall the exact phrasing but it was 1957 novel by Ayn Rand with maybe something about individualism. The Great Gatsby and The Sun also Rises were two of the other answers in the category. O Jeopardy O mores! Anybody mentioned lately that Alex is not, like a real American? Ninth here is one for you: category, opera singers who remind you of Ayn Rand.Answer: She wore a breastplate and conquered Isabel Bayrakdarian in her Cleopatra bling. Hit the buzzer!

Dear Tony - I said "sensible" not "serious'. I would never want you to not be serious, you would not be Tony without it, indeed nobody can be themselves if they are not serious about serious things. Even I am fundamentally serious though I admit it doesn't show much. But sensible , as in common sense, I have an unreasonable prejudice against for various reasons, the main one being that I have very little of it myself. I certainly divert from the sensible to the silly more often than I probably should, but I do it for selfish reasons of enjoyment, and if that doesn't make sense to anybody, well, it doesn't to me either really, if I had to think about it. But I don't have to. Still not sharpest knife in drawer due to residual rust, Carol

I think it is in its origins a purely patriarchal issue, with medical reasons playing virtually no role. Ba'al conceded this too when he wrote: "Primitive" is the key word here really, and religions where circumcision (no matter in which form) is compulsory merely reflect the primitive patriarchal stage during which these religions were founded. But don't we have to ask ourselves if it makes sense in our time to unreflectedly continue such primitive patriarchal acts? Yes, we do. You are more unflinching than I, and you have the right of it. Religion is a blind here, or a remove -- there is the whole issue of practices like dietary laws, whether they originated in practical health reasons and became ossified as religious laws -- it is culture, specifically patriarchal culture, and thus family, that it all comes down to. Instinctively I agree with Adam's position - it's parental. And like you I am grateful that my state will intervene if parents abuse their children. And that parents are educated, and given the tools to know how to best safeguard their children, and given a community where they can be strongly influenced, yet still free.

Damn you Adam, you made me spill my coffee again laughing. If that isn't an inspired projection of poor Dubya's dearest fantasy, then I'm not Respectable. In other sightings, Obama was at the Sharks game yesterday, wearing a Canucks jersey (I saw him!). Apparently he had an extra ticket but Netanyahu refused to go with him. Downright churlish of Mr N, I thought. Those tickets are not easy to come by, even in benighted venues like San Jose.

The issue is quite problematic because there exists form of female 'circumcision' where 'only' the clitoral hood is removed (hoodectomy), which is the biological equivalent to male circumcision consisting in removing the foreskin. (Whereas the equivalent to clitoridectomy would be cutting off the male's glans penis). I've had a controversial discussion on hoodectomy with a poster on another thread: http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8934&st=20&p=105789entry105789 Now if male circumscisn is presented as comparatively harmless, this might also provide 'ammunition' for the advocates of female hoodectomy. Oh dear, ick, yuck. Like you I feel leery even about piercing, in fact I don't even have pierced ears, and I refused to let my son get a tattoo until he was 18 (he only got the one). Btw X, do you think this is all about medical or is there some macho in there somewhere? Remember all those Philistine foreskins (900 was it? Ba'al would know) - I know, I don't like to think about them either and hasten to add for non-old Testament fans that they were removed postmortem (I hope) for David to send Saul as war trophies. The hysteria of some male anticircumcisionists (not here on OL!)reminds me uncomfortably of the right-to-bear-arms gunfight debate. Squeamishly, Carol

Carol, Well, of course it is - hasn't been getting its regular OiLing, has it? (Have to crack up at my own silly jokes.) I enjoy devious novelists, who cleverly "hide in plain sight".* There is a line that can be crossed into sheer obfuscation, I'd think, though. Poetry sometimes does that to me - and I end up frustrated at my denseness to understand it. The individualism quote was from a woman writer I hadn't heard of - and I wish I'd noted her name at the time. *(I've had the passing thought that Rand's novels were written with such unambiguous clarity, that may have contributed to drawing negative literary criticism to her. Do we expect an amount of ambiguity in novels?) Yes, btw, Roth's self-indulgence still did offer something valuable to me. Nice to see you again. Tony And to see you. I especially missed your silly jokes and feared you may have gone all sensible without my bad influence. Understanding poetry -- here I know I'm wrenching the discussion from its foundation which was about visual art and then literature. Poetry can only be understood in the way music is -- ie, it can't. It can only be felt, recognized, like music from which it was for millennia indivisible. Nothing is easier to understand than the structure of words or musical notation. But nothing is harder to explain than their effect. Ayn Rand struggled mightily to wrestle music into her aesthetic corral and was honest about the difficulties of doing so. I don't know if she had anything to say about poetry -- I hope not. It is Victoria Day here and I am revelling in Gilbert & Sulllivan, Rule Britannia, etc on the radio, cutting off the crusts of my tomato sandwiches (I'm out of cucumber) and clinking a teacup southeastwards. Hear it? Carol Relubing nicely

Good heavens! At first I feared that you yourself had been set upon, LV. Then seeing the topic title, without the convenience store part, I thought the post would be subtitled "A Brief History of Las Vegas."

In one of Iris Murdoch's novels (the Black Prince?)a character says, "I am a poet; I write to conceal." That remark has always intrigued me, because there is a truth in there that somehow I understand, but I can't explain it for the life of me. I'm sure it was a serious remark, not just Murdoch being offhand clever, and I remember that the character herself had much to conceal, from herself and others.But the idea of fiction writing itself being an act of concealment, of misdirection or deception, a sort of hiding in plain sight, -- that is powerfully true, and at the heart of art. "All writers are liars", as many cheerfully admit. I don't seem to be making any kind of point here, maybe I'm just being tautological and saying "fiction is fiction", but the Murdoch quote just echoes on... About every novel being an act of individualism though, thanks for that quote, it is gloriously true. I wonder who said it. F Scott Fitzgerald once remarked that he did not understand how anybody else thought or felt, except for himself and his wife (and she was crazy!) And just recently a lit-prize judge quit the Booker committee to protest the award to Philip Roth because "he has only one subject --himself." Well, of course he does. And how well he explores it. Our friend JR to the contrary notwithstanding. Sorry for the rambly post but it has been raining here for two weeks (hampering my recent enforced enjoyment of nature) and my brain is rusty.

And game 4. Softly, softly catchee beastie. So a word on national anthems. Singing them in Tony Bennett style is interesting but as we have seen today, not too good at rousing the blood and baring the teeth, and singing flat, even on purpose, is not a good idea at the start of a hockey game. O Canada is a very boring song, I am the first to admit, but I am fond of it as it is the only song I am allowed to sing in public. I too have tried out variations on the finale in the privacy of my home. It was a little startling to hear that a real singer's variations were worse than mine. My secret dream is to attend the karaoke and knock them dead with my renditions of the Hank Snow classics "I'm Movin On" and "I Don't Hurt Anymore", but meanwhile I appreciate my luck that my students enjoy singing O Canada at the end of every class, almost as much as I do.

Game 3. And oh yes - it must be yes! Next year in Winnipeg, O Lord. "Home they'll play where they long to be Home, Manitoba, Quebec or BC, And the Molsons in wait on the chill." -Lord S, apologies to RL Stevenson

The Canucks! Yes! The Committee has heard submissions that Objectivism says little, indeed nothing, about ice hockey. True, yet times move on, and we know of at least one famous player and several coaches and team physios who have read Atlas Shrugged, and that is good enough for us. SOBRIQUET OF THE WEEK "Valliant's demented tome". With his trademark devastating brevity, Daniel Barnes defines PARC once and for all on ARCHN. Henceforth we shall think of Mr Valliant, when and if we do think of him, as Demented Tomer, DT for short. APOLOGY OF THE WEEK The Committee have had to relax our vigilance, cease our terrier-like seekings out of excellence, and otherwise cease and desist from everything due to ongoing negotiations between unnameable corporate entities and our small but incorruptible selves. We could say more, and we will, ...whatever has been the best in the past two weeks however, we have no clue but trust to the infallible judgment of our readership to determine.

Adam, For once we are in complete agreement. Even one of our devil-horned socialist PMs said "The State has no business in the bedrooms of the nation" and I know now he would say the state had no business at the bris or the circumcision table in the doctor's office, or harrying the parents with political correctness. Missed you too! Going Galt technically without volition is not rapturous, believe me!

Oh, boy, and I do mean boy because it is only male circumcision I know about. There is no female circumcision - it is wrong to call it so, it is a mutilation and a violation which can never be justified. What I know of male circumcision is this: my husband was uncircumcised, and chose circumcision for both his sons, for the sake of their future sexual health and enjoyment. At the time I knew nothing of the subject, and as he felt very strongly about it (won't get technical but he explained it very reasonably) I accepted his decision. Now, it is a contentious issue and I have been told I should feel guilty for acquiescing in mutilating my children. My elder son chose to have my grandson circumcised. As to blighting a boy's sexual life: well, really. 50 million Frenchmen have often been wrong and I'm sure 500 million Jewish men could be too, as could any men.Or women. But they can't all be so wrong as not to know that that the foreskin is small, and there's lots of skin left , and that though we are all entitled to every single tiny nerve ending we are born with, we don't need them all. Is there really a whole generation of young circumcised men out there, driving themselves crazy because they think they aren't enjoying sex as much as they could, because of medical butchery and their parents' ignorance?

Some of you may have asked yourselves, what would life be like without Objectivist Living, or indeed the internet itself? But I bet you have not asked yourselves what it would be like without the internet OR the telephone OR the TV except for Fashion Television and OUT TV and some other free channel too awful even to remember the name of. You need not ask yourselves, I have been there and I know the answer, it is no fun. If I had any sense, this would be the start of an op-ed about unplugging voluntarily for a couple of weeks, reconnecting with family, enjoying nature, reading books and getting back in touch with oneself. But if I had any sense I would have realized that paying the minimal amounts on three bills that I used to pay on one bill, would not keep three services running (I had a hazy idea that the internet was free, anyway). The heartless monopolists of Bell have shown me the consequences of my fecklessness, with the kicker that after they briefly restored my satellite and internet, it killed my telephone. A technician arrived to fix the phone, which he did, upon which the internet died again, never to rise again until today. I will not dwell upon my travails in this interim. There are more wires in this apartment than in the average human brain and something has been done to every one of them. At the lowest points, like when I was missing the hockey game and could not go out to watch it because I was waiting for the technician again, I admit I writhed against my slavery to technology, and even cast dark bitter thoughts towards the innocent city of Brantford. Indeed I enjoyed nature, read books and connected with family (by payphone), but I do those things anyway, and the unfailing love and support I always get from my dear sons usually included commiseration sessions about the way we always all seem to be broke at the same times, and ungentle hints that I need to improve my organizational skills. I made many, many new friends in Manila, Delhi, Thunder Bay and Miramichi, my call centre experience being a great help in getting them to tell me what was actually going on, and I have vowed to answer the phone more often, now that it is working again. It's funny but I feel exhausted as if I had had to rebuild the whole computer myself, and my arms and everything else are tired-- and strangely I feel shy, now there's weird for you. In two weeks much gets said and I don't know what yet--it's like being the new poster again, six months on.

Marc and PDS, too bad about Philly and Detroit. Really. VANCOUVER TAKES GAME 1 of the semi. How sweet it is.

One Ba'al to another Bal. This is precisely what we have now. A Mixed Economy is a mutt economy. Ba'al Chatzaf Socialist-Capitalist Mutt Economy Country is sitting up here, asking the age-old economists' question, "We know it works in reality, but how do we make it fit the theory?"

For the personal revelation and the accompanying well founded aesthetic judgement I can re-extend enthusiastic contrafibularities. I’ll even throw in a little Brian Blessed, for good measure. In excelsis, gloria. Was there ever a better adaptation? Graves surely would have loved it. Only the GTWT movie was as good at showing what the author told. Sian Phillips (is she a Dame yet? she should be) - reaming out the gladiators for being unprofessional and trying to save their lives -- the whole cast should have been ennobled if you ask me. Here's to Baron Blessed, KBE!

Thanks for this list - I remember seeing the titles on bestseller lists -Influential!?! I have actually read all or part of all these books except the Peck and Kushner ones. Can't remember the Lindbergh at all except a blandness. The Feminine Mystique influenced me pretty adversely. At 18 I was a feminist in that I was smart and had no domestic skills and was considered capable of doing "a man's job".Then here was this book revealing hordes of equally equipped other females who also were capable of cleaning a whole house in one morning and looking after a family as well as doing the men's jobs, it was very depressing to see all that competition coming my way. Friedan later admitted that she skewed the survey on which the book was based to create the "problem that had no name" (it had a name of course, underemployment, but that was hardly the stuff of bestselling titles). Her survey was of alumnae of her college, Vassar I think. I still think that lady with the four sons who claimed she cleaned the whole house and then was bored by noon because there were no bridge games was just lying, or had a maid. I have to think so, for my own sanity. I read the Carnegie classic when I was 10. My mother saw me reading it and remarked, "You can't learn to make friends by reading books." She had more friends than anybody in town so I believed her. The Book of Mormon is a silly sci-fi pseudo Old Testament. The Victor Frankl book, and Frankl himself, I read as an adult and they remain with me, stars to steer by. GWTW I have read three or four times. It is simply terrific. The others I have nothing new to say about as they are so universally known and read --but the q of actual continuing sales is a fascinating one to pursue later.

There is also the "rape scene" which chacterized both Mitchell and Rand as "romantic" novelists.

You got it Adam. Like I always say, Gene Pitney rules!

The "Atlas Shrugged is the second most influential" urban myth is never going to die, but not because of me if I can help it. The latest perpetrator is that well-known empiricist Lindsay Perigo citing the "famous study" that Rand is second to the Bible in influencing people. He well knows, or ought to, that the "famous study" was in fact an informal survey, a publicity stunt,by the Book-0f-the Month Club, in which about 800 people named Rand next to the Bible as most influential on their lives. All 800 of them. Are you familiar with Book-of-the-Month Club members, then and now? I was, and am. I am willing to believe that they were all serious intellectuals or at least Eddie Willerses. But it is more likely that they were and are (as has been researched) primarily people who wished to appear well-read without taking the time to read, or people whose friends and relatives gifted them with memberships. It is highly likely that most who responded to that survey had not actually read any of the books they were asked about, or only read one or two.Undoubtedly many did read Atlas Shrugged. If they had also read the Bible --who knows? And who knows how many other books they had ever read, at that point in their lives And if we asked those 800 today would they say the same thing I know that many who have read innumerable books, and yet have found Atlas Shrugged the most influential in their lives, will read this. But they should also deplore the shoddiness of the pr which is still being spun,long past its empirical sell-by date.

Nobody has yet explained to me why Yaron Brook, an Isralie native, sounds like Woody Allen ,

FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE SACRED IGLOO\ LOCAL 13 Dear Brothers, Geez, what can we say? The Secret Plan has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams and two of us here are members of Parliament and have to go to Ottawa,that is OK for you know who with the New Different Name. He says he is fine with Quebec and so on and is bilingual, ha wait till they find out he is bilingual in English and Hebrew but we will not tell because he is a Brother. He says he hopes to be the shadow Minister of Finance because of his experience with our lodge finances, double ha if I may say so. The other member well you all know is my wife Claudine and they are telling me I have to go down there and be a husband of. She got that attention from the Sluts walk although everybody knows she is not a slut, anyway they elected her. I do not want to be a purse holder like that Harvey who used to make movies, I do not want to be Gord who used to be the assistant shaman and chief mechanic at Canadian Tire. But everyone says it is my duty so I will go but I will not stay there when it gets too hot. ISS Gord I shall return

A bit of a schocker, yup, for the NDP. Mr Harper can now turn into the lizard-monster his harshest opponents imagine him to be, a kind of authoritarian majoritarian. It is almost sad that M Duceppe may lose his seat in Parliament. It is the only job he has had for twenty years, poor fellow. Unlike in Syrian presidential 'elections,' we have losers. Oh, God. If Harper does to the whole country what Harris did to Ontario, where is there to go? I'm too old to move to Finland!

Everybody I asked thinks you should not be in charge of organizing a free society.