Sunday, October 03, 2010

Ayn Rand

I liked Ayn Rand when I first read her in 1999 but something about her writing kept disturbing me for a long time.  Their was something inhuman about the characters.  

I believe Ayn Rand characters are automata, finite state machines. They don't wonder, or get surprised,  or grow or evolve. Every decision they need to take in their life is decidable without an iota of doubt. They are able to model every situation, are dead sure about their model and can find their optimal response.

This, I believe is not quite true for humans.

2 comments:

  1. How did you come to this conclusion about Ayn Rand's characters? It does not jibe with my own experience in reading Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. I could name many examples of characters -- Roark, Dominique, Dagny, Rearden, and others -- struggling with things they don't understand, gaining new insights, changing their minds, etc.

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  2. Its been a long time since I read these books. I could be wrong. But this is what I do remember. I will look up one of the books and get back to you. I don't remember Roark or Rearden ever being doubtful of their decisions. They could always choose between whatever life threw at them.

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