Sunday, July 21, 2013

Starnesville / Detroit


Daniel Hannan for the Telegraph, seen on Ace's sidebar. 

It is a very good piece. Compares a physical description of Rand's Starnesville to Detroit. 

I do no like Ayn Rand's writing, although as a crackpot personality in real life she appeals to me greatly. The book about Atlas shrugging didn't have Atlas in there at all, what a bummer. And I felt like I had been hammered senseless with a single thought for like 600 pages. You get the idea right off, but does she leave well enough alone? No. She drags you through the mud with it down to the last molecule and she does that achingly slowly,  and the thing is bang bang bang bang the whole time drilling the idea home like chainsaw. And always do try your best to use the right tool for the right porpoise.

That's what I got out of it. Plus she writes love scenes and dialogue like a robot. A Russian robot. A Russian cartoon robot. 

Okay, come to think of it, might be a good reason to re-read it real fast. Like a Russian cartoon robot. And now Rearden put his lips to Dagny's lips and now he kiss her and now she warily and with trepidation attempted to push her tongue into Rearden's mouth… no wait, no, that sucks. I'm sorry. I'll  go get a real quote:

This place analyzes Atlas sex quotes to dispute them, I think. Here goes one.

He did not know it, he did not think of it, he was past the need of words, but in the moment when he felt the response of her body to his, he felt also the unadmitted knowledge that that (2 that's) which he had called her depravity was her highest virtue -- this capacity of hers to feel the joy of being, as he felt it.

They say that means:

Hank highlights the theme of switching word meanings around again when he realizes that what society calls "depravity" is really a "virtue." It's also interesting that Hank is described as "beyond words" here; this happens to various characters in the novel and emphasizes the depth of feeling our heroes, whom the looters often call "unemotional," have.
and
"For two years, I had been Hank Rearden's mistress. Let there be no misunderstanding about it: I am saying this, not as a shameful confession, but with the highest sense of pride."
That means.
It makes sense that Dagney whose values are the opposite of those of society, would consider being a "mistress" something to be proud of.
Okay, that wasn't at all sexy. Sorry. There are personal sex scenes in that book, I recall them, somewhat poorly written, stilted, I thought at the time, not just dialogue about sex. I gained the impression Ayn Rand did not enjoy it all that much.
Aaaanyway, the piece Daniel Hannan picked out is interesting. The comparison from an item in Detroit's Observer with Rand's writing in 1957 when Detroit was at the top. Ookyspay if you know what I eanmay.
And I have this friend who is 80 years old and he goes traipsing around the mountain trails with another person with the same interest. They hit all the trails they can, all the high peaks that they can, count them as notches in their belts, always talk about the outdoor places they hiked. And that other person is an Ayn Rand enthusiast and it's driving the 80 year old nuts.
He absolutely does not comprehend and is unwilling to read such a fat book. It's a thing with those two. So I think this would be a good introduction. 
He won't read an item that long. And if he did, he'd get it wrong. The link would be wasted. Every time I talk to him about something political, something distorted comes back like he's warping things on porpoise. 

.

35 comments:

rcocean said...

This will get many replies. Rand is big on the intertubes.

KCFleming said...

Holy cats.

Sometimes I think we're on Chapter 1 of Cormac McCarthy's The Road".

And, not surprisingly, some lefties are blaming Detroit on Republicans, even though It's been a blue state for over 50 years.

They never ever ever admit to a mistake. Ever.

Jaske said...

Ayn is a personnel experience.
How could it be elsewise?

Chennaul said...

I do no like Ayn Rand's writing

Bingo!

I dunno I only read a sex scene written by Tom Clancy once but I'm almost certain he wins the booby prize--er, not--or something.

Aridog said...

Pogo ....Clarification here: Michigan has been a combo of Republican and Democrat lefties for all of those 50 years, with one 14 year Republican governor that sponsored and implemented a permanent income tax and a closeted VAT tax, without pass through credits. That made labor taxable as part of revenue, not an expense deriving net income...e.g., you owed tax for your business even in loss years, the politicians dream. The only difference between Michigan Republicans and Democrats is the pin in their lapel ever election cycle, otherwise not a whit difference.

For the first we just might have a real Republican Governor,in Snyder, who appointed Kevyn Orr, who declared DEtroit bankrupt...which it is. Snyder also dumped that cursed VAT tax. Time will tell if he's not just another liberal ass RINO. The governor who put the income tax in place and the VAT tax in place, back in the 60's, also formally endorsed John Kerry ion 2004.

The jury is out on whether Michigan has any Republicans at all...those who have been in office in the past were worse than Democrats.

Chennaul said...

I've been told that supposedly this is her best novel:


We the Living is the first novel published by the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. It was also Rand's first statement against communism. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Rand observes in the foreword to this book that We the Living was the closest she would ever come to writing an autobiography. Her working title for the novel had been Airtight. We the Living was first completed in 1934, but, despite support from H. L. Mencken,[1] who deemed it "a really excellent piece of work,"...


***

I read five pages of Fountainhead, go get somebody else to do it.

Sydney said...

It is amazing to see the ruin that is Detroit. Even just passing through on the interstate, you can see the decay, like no other city in the country, maybe the world, unless you in luxe bombed out cities. It amazes me that the people of a city cod let it get that bad.

Sydney said...

It is amazing to see the ruin that is Detroit. Even just passing through on the interstate, you can see the decay, like no other city in the country, maybe the world, unless you in luxe bombed out cities. It amazes me that the people of a city cod let it get that bad.

KCFleming said...

@Aridog
I feel that way about most GOPers nationwide.

All of them are statists.

rcocean said...

Things I noticed in the "Fountainhead":

-There are no children
-There are no loving parents in the novel. Most characters either have one live parent (that they dislike) or no parents at all.
-Dominique is described as having a "vicious" and/or "cold" mouth about 25 times.
-Roark has "orange" hair.
-Wynand likes Roark so much he goes off with him on his yacht alone for 3 months - and leaves beautiful Dominique at home.
-Characters don't merely draw or write but "violently slash lines on the drawing" or "savagely write". I didn't realize journalism and architecture was so violent until I read Rand.
-Rand's contempt for the average person and religion is quite noticeable.
-The smart characters are constantly being disappointed that another smart character needs it spelled out for them. "I thought you were smarter than that".
-Conversely, Rand is constantly writing that "words were unnecessary between them, they both understood...."

pm317 said...

Hey Chip Ahoy, your best ever post and couldn't agree more about Ayn Rand. I think I read it in my final year of HS or first year of college. It was the thing to do -- all the hip people had to read a list of English literature, not for class but to feel hip and this was one of them -- 'have you read Atlas Shrugged? Nooo?' I remember exactly how you describe it. What nonsense.

bagoh20 said...

" It amazes me that the people of a city could let it get that bad."

Most man made disasters, both big and small are a direct result of people refusing to admit a mistake, even when they know it to be. Sometimes it's just ego, and sometimes it's fear and paralysis counting on luck to make the reckoning go away. So preventable, but knowing people, maybe it's the hardest of all thing to prevent.

I just keep coming back to the same root cause - dumb voters. They're like drunks with your car keys - YOUR car keys.

bagoh20 said...

“An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.”

pm317 said...

Detroit.. which city is next?

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

Nothing about Detroit is particularly unique as cities, or even states go. Lots of other jurisdictions have the same structural problems. Detroit is just the worst in combination and degree, but most especially in unwillingness to try anything new, as in free market, like that's such a new idea.

The entire state of California has made the same mistakes, but we are lucky enough to have natural and other advantages that allow stupid ideas to remain afloat like a styrofoam boat with holes in it. It's still full of holes, everybody knows it's not right, but it just won't sink.

William said...

You have to be pretty perverse to read Ayn Rand for the sex scenes. That's worse than Pastafarian who posted that picture of a fat sheep (not even a Merino) that no bestialist, however drunk, would consider worthy of notice. You meet some strange people on the Internet.

William said...

I like bagoh's comparison of Detroit to styrofoam. Too air headed to know that it's drowning and highly flammable even when drowning........Has everyone with an ounce of hope or ambition already left that city?

bagoh20 said...

The politicians who do this stuff as was done Detroit are truly despicable. They promise people ridiculous benefits on Monday, get their votes on Tuesday, pass some regulation to scare off business on Wednesday, raise taxes to get the rich to leave town on Thursday, cash their checks on Friday and grab a hooker and some coke for the weekend.

20 years later, Everyone still in that city is screwed big time left holding the bag. Still they voted for the guy promising the lie, so it all fair I guess. The only way to not be a victim is to leave, and I mean walk out barefoot, if you have to.

When I was 22, my home town was a miniature Detroit - a rust belt town. I left a comfortable yet useless life there to be broke and homeless somewhere with potential, and it was the best thing I ever did. That town is still no better off than it was 3 decades ago. There is no future in these places. The amount of mind changing necessary to fix it is just impossible.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Once upon a time, there was a little black girl In the brust of projects of Detroit, Michigan
At fifteen, she was spotted by an Ebony Fashion Fair talent scout
And her modeling career took off

Chip Ahoy said...

I did send the link. The 80 year old wrote back, "You do know I lived in Detroit for one year in 1967, the year of the riots, even then it was deteriorating. Still haven't gotten around to Shrugged but will get to it soon. Adrien will love your link."

See what I mean? Thud. He has no intention of reading that book. He's 80. There isn't enough time left for that crap from his pov, and I don't blame him at all.

deborah said...

Here's Justin Raimondo's recollection of meeting Ayn Rand when he was a teen.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Good post Chip! I may now take Atlas Sgrugged off my reading list and move it to the yard sale bin.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

A friend of mine used to work for GM.

He said at one point years ago, all the employees knew the product they made was crap and showed up to work driving Toyotas and Hondas.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

From the Daniel Hannan link:

The Observer, naturally, quotes a native complaining that ‘capitalism has failed us,’ but capitalism is the one thing the place desperately needs. Detroit has been under Leftist administrations for half a century. It has spent too much and borrowed too much, driving away business and becoming a tool of the government unions.

The disease that killed Detroit is of the mind.
The left killed an entire city and they all blame capitalism. We are doomed, folks.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

According the to the insane left, the cure for Detroit is more leftism, more statism, bigger government, more unions, and ZERO free market competition and capitalism.

Hard to fathom why the nation is in decline.

Leland said...

I've never read Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged. Instead, I downloaded them from Audible and listened to both during commutes. I think rcoceans comments are about right.

However, I did enjoy the books. There is parts of Atlas Shrugged that almost seem like a game plan of the Obama Administration. Fountainhead shows some of the ethical problems with journalism at the beginning of the 20th Century, which just suggests the problem has been around awhile.

I don't know enough of Detroit to compare it to Starnsville, but reading Michael Barone's article certainly suggest a comparison is reasonable.

I'm Full of Soup said...

April- that anecdote doesn't ring true. Even today, when you go to Detroit area, you will see a far higher % of American cars than you will see in other parts of the country. In fact, factory workers, at Detroit auto plants, who drove non-American cars had to park, in some cases, in separate parking lots.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"Of Detroit’s $11 billion debt, $9 billion is accounted for by public sector salaries and pensions. Under the mountain of accumulated obligations, the money going into, say, the emergency services is not providing services but pensions. Result? It takes the police an hour to respond to a 911 call and two thirds of ambulances can’t be driven. This is a failure, not of the private sector, but of the state. And, even now, the state is fighting to look after its clients: a court struck down the bankruptcy application on grounds that ‘will lessen the pension benefits of public employees’."...

There you go! Now, the rest of America is growing poorer and poorer while DC thrives and parties. Ala The Hunger Games.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I'm just telling you what a friend of mine, who lived and worked in Detroit, told me. This was years if not decades ago. Perhaps he was lying to me.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I felt like I had been hammered senseless with a single thought for like 600 pages. You get the idea right off, but does she leave well enough alone? No. She drags you through the mud with it down to the last molecule and she does that achingly slowly

Yes, that is her writing style. Hammer you over the head with the ideas and STILL people didn't get it.

Rand experienced the end result of Socialism/Communism/Progressive Policies first hand. Her family was ruined by it and escaped to America....or so she thought only to see us following down the same path.

Cassandra tried to warn her people too, and she was pretty unpopular for it. No one wants to really see the consequences of their own actions much less be told by someone else how they are going wrong. Instead we are collectively putting our fingers in our ears and going LA LA LA..Can't hear you.

California as an entire state is taking the Detroit path. Never ever learn by example. THIS time it will work. THIS time it will be different. We are so screwed.

ken in tx said...

@ madawaskan, I've been told that supposedly this is her best novel:


We the Living is the first novel published by the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. It was also Rand's first statement against communism. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Rand observes in the foreword to this book that We the Living was the closest she would ever come to writing an autobiography. Her working title for the novel had been Airtight. We the Living was first completed in 1934, but, despite support from H. L. Mencken,[1] who deemed it "a really excellent piece of work,"...

I think it is her best work. I have read them all. It reminds me of “Dr. Zhivago”.

Aridog said...

Another good link about Detroit via Instapundit and a review of a pertinent book by a Detroiter.

AllenS said...

I read that this morning Aridog. Right on the money.

rcocean said...

Look you guys always act like its just economics and politics. Y'see if only they'd been conservative..

You got lots of crazy left-wing cities, SF, Seattle, Portland, Boston, NY. You got whole states that are bat shit crazy like Vermont and Oregon. And in Europe you got Norway, Denmark, Holland, and Germany.

People are always jabbering Race, well it was the biggest factor in the fall of Detroit. But they don't want to talk about it. For once.