Opine Much?

Anthem; Ayn Rand; Literary Fiction; -2; BrothersJudd

Sometimes I have trouble seeing the forest for the trees. Sometimes, however, I take the time to try and see and the forest... And someone comes along and bashes me over the head with one particularly large tree. Oh, Miss Rand, why must you bury your incredibly sexy story beneath an almost impenetrable layer of bombastic philosophizing?

I myself am of the opinion that the philosophy should serve the story. A good story, well presented, ought to reveal the intent, the thought, the meaning behind its inception, without forcing that meaning down the reader's throat like Syrup of Ipecac.

I happen to believe in some of the over-arching ideas of Objectivism. I don't see anything wrong with glorifying individual human beings, I am a die-hard capitalist and a serious believer in social Dawrinism. I do, however, find myself sometimes a little nauseated by the extreme fervor with which Miss Rand espouses her views. Seeing as she was born and raised in Stalinist Russia, I can't blame her for being a little strident and hysterical- I would be, too. Especially if I were espousing her viewpoint during the Cold War and in the midst of the American hippie movement, that gleefully blithe petri dish of sideways collectivism. But still... It's not really a novel. It's a polemic, and a vitrolic one at that. I'm wandering into review territory here, I really ought to back off.

Still, there's something about her attitude that bothers me. She's all about the rights of the individual, about not interfering with individual liberty, choice, etc. She's behind my all-time favourite quote on the issue: "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."

Putting that idea up against the things she says in her books, and here I may actually be thinking about The Fountainhead more than Anthem, I have to ask... Doesn't an individual also have the right to betray himself? How can you support individual rights on the one hand and spew venom against those who don't live up to your ideal of the individual on the other? If you criticize those who don't follow your own ideal, you're not really supporting individualism. You're supporting a different form of collectivism. You should all be different, just like me.

One Down, Many To Go

The DaVinci Code; Dan Brown; Thriller/Mystery; -13; Laura Miller at Salon.com

I hate everything about this and I probably always will. The only good thing about it is that the movie gave me another chance to worship the glory that is Audrey Tautou's screen presence.

But seriously- is there anything in this book that wasn't already easily available knowledge? There's nothing intellectually brave or forward about suggesting that a 30-something rabbi was probably married and probably had kids. I think that's a little like suggesting your local mafioso might eat gabagool for lunch every once in a while; suggesting that the fellow in question is a mafioso is likely to draw more gasps than pointing out his dietary habits.

And there's the rub. The church leaders who seem most threatened by this book are the ones who seem unable- or unwilling- to grasp the idea that if Jesus was indeed real than he was most likely nothing more than the historical equivalent of any modern, extremely charismatic and successful counter-culture preacher.

That was about twelve hours of my life I will never, ever get back. Ever.

Although, as much as I hated the book, it did move pretty darn fast. I do admire Brown's pacing.