Sneering Illiterates brace yourselves... I'm just going to say it.
The great American novel has been written
and its ATLAS SHRUGGED.
Irrespective of her philosophy Ayn Rand might just be the greatest prose stylist America has ever produced
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What is ATLAS SHRUGGED? What is its genre?
Atlas Shrugged is a 1500 page screed against FDR, God, and non-BDSM sexual relationships, written as a cross between a very slow mystery (that's already spoiled), a long meeting on industrial purchasing, and a harlequin romance
3/
Seriously its a "Mary Sue fucks the male cast" story... Rand just didn't know she was born too soon and was supposed to write it as an erotic Harry Potter fan fic
There is no way whatsoever that this should work. It breaks every unspoken rule of not just writing, but decency
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And yet it works.
It works in spite of her political philosophy lacking any meaningful definition of the political. It works in spite of her being a bizarre robot who's turned on by sharp angles. It works in spite of her stopping repeatedly for dozen page speeches.
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As Utopian/revolutionary fiction its hackney'd... Chernyshevsky socialist "What is to be done?" might be the closest comparison.
But as Dystopian fiction? Depicting moral & economic failure & collapse? Its one of the greatest works ever written. Surpassing Orwell or Huxley
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And it all worked.
She sold 37 million copies!
2 million to American schools!
And somehow no feminists were interested in doing scholarship on this woman who published this all under her own name 10 years before the sexual revolution
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There are two possible explanations for Rand's success...
The first is that her politics are just that compelling and her philosophy that overwhelming in its logic (they're not)
The second is that her prose is just that good. That she's the American Tolstoy or Tolkien
8/
Tolstoy & Tolkien are two very good comparisons. In that both wrote similar novels.
Massive hundred character semi-historical parables that are meant to impart their views on spirituality and the human condition... or rather rationality and the autist condition for Rand
9/ Rand share's their talent for being able to write dozens of characters who all embody a meditation on a theme
The same way a dozen characters might each be their own meditation on power in Tolkien, a dozen might each have their own meditation on resentment or industry in Rand
10/
People dismiss some of these characters as 1 dimensional
Gandalf or worm-tongue are also "1-Dimensional" its what those characters mean in relation to their world that drives the value of the character and their interactions in unique ways
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And the themes are foundational to American experience!
The nature of enterprise, morality, self interest, freedom... These are all core American questions as much as Heirarchy/Duty is for England, or Endurance/History is for Russia
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And like every other fascinating or unique artifact American culture produces, America's elite have to try to destroy it
Same thing happened to rock, same thing to wrestling (American Theatre), same thing is going on with conspiracy theories and other folk mythology now
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"But I disagree with her politics"
Do you agree with Tolkien's Conservative Catholic "Divine right of kings" Monarchism?
Do you agree with Tolstoy's Orthodox Mysticist Pacifism?
Rand's politics Are no more central than theirs. Its just more immediate in Current Year
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This is the great American novel
This is the literary object that would give a true insight into "America" in all its contradiction
A Chinese or or Iranian would learn vastly more about American culture, politics, and Aesthetics from this than Moby Dick or Great Gatsby
P.S. I also write long takes.
Check out my piece on the seeming impossibility of properly Adapting Shakespeare to film... And Justin Kurzel gorgeous unordothox Masterpiece of Macbeth
There's a lot of doomerism in the US and while some of this can verge really deranged, there are some really core insights you get from Rad Libertarians, Preppers, and geopolitics watchers, that most people simply have not internalized.
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Globally Every institution that makes up the modern world is about 80 years old
Every major government institution was set into place during or immediately after WW2.
Social security, education, health schemes, military policy...
And they've been impossible to change since
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The problem is every single one of these institutions assumes 1940s demographics where everyone has 3-4 kids and almost everyone dies of a heart attack at 65.
Medicare and Social security where minor budget items when they came out...
Both hardline conservatives and progressives women seem to believe in this psychosexual Handmaid's Tale where professional women will not be able to get an at will abortion.
sorry the forced breeding fetishes are going to remain fantasy
2/
Lets be very clear.
Under no circumstances will abortion be meaningfully banned in the US.
The Federal government bans weed, psychedelics, and Illegal immigrant labour... States just declare themselves sanctuaries and refuse to enforce. (as is their constitutional power)
3/
If the pro-life dream happens and a federal government bans abortion...
Every blue state would just declare themselves "Abortion Sanctuaries" refuse to enforce, and mandate that state officials can provide no Aid to federal enforcement
The American empire is receding, even if there's no crash or Trumpian withdrawal, America's economic and military dominance is turning into mere preeminence.
How will warfare look after empire? The answer may lie in video games.
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There's a concept you see a lot in video games, that exists almost nowhere else in fiction.
That of the Merc/Knight/Ace.
Whether its jets, tanks, mechs, subs, or spec ops, video games love to place you in the shoes of a picaresque sellsword out for fortune and glory.
3/
This obviously works well in a game.
Suddenly keeping accounts, navigating different loyalties, managing subordinates. purchasing gear... that all becomes the player's problem, and the game dev gets new ways to reward or punish good/bad play
🧵 1/
People wonder why clothing changed so much between the early 20th century and now...Or why people would ever dress "So formally"
What people don't realize is how much lifestyles have changed in that time
2/
Early 20th century people walked Everywhere. In all weather.
And there was unlikely to be much climate control one way or the other when they got there.
Outfits in the 40s and before were designed so you could walk 10 miles in them in November, + pockets for all you need
3/
Cars were a recent curiosity that most didn't have and could not yet be relied upon consistently... As late as the 40s the Wehrmacht built its logistics around horses, and as late as the 1960s! horses were used in northern regions where winter made roads impassible
COVID accelerated a lot of things, most noticeable has been the decoupling of the US from China.
But one of the most accelerated trends has been the decline of US universities...
Well over half of US schools will close by 2030.
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Notably however, this was the official prediction BEFORE the events of 2020.
The simple fact is despite the outrageous tuitions and outrageous endowments tier 1 US schools command, the vast majority of America's 5000 colleges and universities are near broke.
3/
While Harvard has amassed an endowment of $40 billion, even large state schools have struggling finances.
all the rise in tuition produced for them was increased competition, and unable to compete on academics or prestige they spent their money on massive facilities.