jeffd@ficc.uu.net (Jeff Daiell) (01/18/90)
In article <4M410G2xds8@ficc.uu.net>, jeffd@ficc.uu.net (Jeff Daiell) writes: > In article <2M41O75xds13@ficc.uu.net>, peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: > > > Even when Verne was writing his books, the science in them was known to > > contain huge amounts of dubious or just plain erronious information. > > That may be true, but it's irrelevant. What's relevant here is > whether he was a novelist trying to be a scientist, or a scientist - > of whatever accuracy - presenting his ideas via fiction. Ditto > for Ayn Rand. She was a philosopher presenting her views via > novels and plays and screenplays for the quite sensible reason that > more people read fiction than monographs. > Let me clarify this, so as to eliminate any confusion. My point is that Verne, regardless of whether his science was accurate, was motivated to write fiction so as to broaden the audience for what he thought were scientific facts. Similiarly, Rand, who authored dozens of essays and edited a long-running philosophical newsletter, also used novels as a means of presenting her philosophy to a broader audience. Thus, she was not, as was charged, a novelist trying to be a philosopher, but, rather, a philosopher who doubled as a novelist. Of course, one could also note that the original snidery against Rand was irrelevant anyway. Why should a novelist be any less qualified to formulate philosophy than anyone else? Certainly there is nothing intellectually debilitating about composing a novel. To continue the clarification, let me re-present the partial bibliography, asteriskizing the non-fiction works. > ANTHEM > WE THE LIVING > THE FOUNTAINHEAD > NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH > ATLAS SHRUGGED > FOR THE NEW INTELLECTUAL * > CAPITALISM: THE UNKNOWN IDEAL * > THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS * > THE NEW LEFT: THE ANTI-INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION * > BTW, THE FOUNTAINHEAD was made into a movie, for which Rand herself wrote the screenplay. It starred Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper, among others. There was talk of a miniseries of ATLAS SHRUGGED on NBC, at one point slated for September of 1980. The deal fell thru --- a shame; it would have been fascinating to see what effect, if any, it would have had on the elections that year. Jeff -- If a hungry man has water, and a thirsty man has bread, Then if they trade, be not dismayed, they both come out ahead. -- Don Paarlberg