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"The Fountainhead" featured on the Simpsons

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Guest Erik Martinsen

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I thought it was interesting that they chose to involve Maggie at a day care center. Their other mention of Rand many years ago involved Maggie being kept in a day care center run by Rand that refused the babies access to pacifiers and characterized her as cruel. This time it's a day care center run by Toohey who is cruel. Of course, they had to get in two quick digs on Rand where Lisa calls The Fountainhead "the Bible of right-wing losers". Which I think acts as their disclaimer saying "we don't endorse any of her ideas yet someone on our staff harassed us into doing this". And of course TF is not "the Bible of the right", the actual Bible fills that role.

Then to a lesser extent Skinner's mother is drawn to how manly the author is. Which just perplexes me honestly, especially in a feminist episode where Lisa is preening on about how women are independent of accomplishments of men.

The parody was pretty straight forward and not bad. Maggie's speech was cute. The rest of the show was relatively bland and unprovocative like a Sunday morning comic strip. It's kind of a shame no one has really cared about the Simpsons for about a decade now.

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Here's the segment from the most recent Simpsons episode, where baby Maggie takes the role of architect "Maggie Roark".

http://popmodal.com/video/2549/Ayn-Rand--S...ns-Fountainhead

That link wouldn't load up for me, so I found it on YouTube.

It's not a bad presentation of The Fountainhead in children's terms, though Maggie painting a Van Gogh painting as her mom was telling the story decries actual creativity (as I think Van Gogh was not rationally creative). In other words, doing what you feel like doing and being non-objective about one's creativity is not in compliance with The Fountainhead nor Objectivism.

Edited by Thomas M. Miovas Jr.
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Of course, they had to get in two quick digs on Rand where Lisa calls The Fountainhead "the Bible of right-wing losers". Which I think acts as their disclaimer saying "we don't endorse any of her ideas yet someone on our staff harassed us into doing this". And of course TF is not "the Bible of the right", the actual Bible fills that role.

Then to a lesser extent Skinner's mother is drawn to how manly the author is. Which just perplexes me honestly, especially in a feminist episode where Lisa is preening on about how women are independent of accomplishments of men.

The parody was pretty straight forward and not bad. Maggie's speech was cute. The rest of the show was relatively bland and unprovocative like a Sunday morning comic strip. It's kind of a shame no one has really cared about the Simpsons for about a decade now.

Lisa has always been crazy to the left, in an adolescent sort of way, hasn't she? Many of the crack pot ideas they present through her character are usually made a fun of, in some way. Then again, I haven't followed The Simpsons in a long time, usually I just happen to run across it, or select it when nothing else is on. I did think the episode was funny, and the parody understandable; their previous attempt was quick and unintelligible.

Edited by RussK
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That link wouldn't load up for me, so I found it on YouTube.

It's not a bad presentation of The Fountainhead in children's terms, though Maggie painting a Van Gogh painting as her mom was telling the story decries actual creativity (as I think Van Gogh was not rationally creative). In other words, doing what you feel like doing and being non-objective about one's creativity is not in compliance with The Fountainhead nor Objectivism.

The painting was probably an arbitrary choice, or at least picked for its instant visibility (lends itself well to the Simpson's animation style); STARRY NIGHT is not so offensive a choice, anyway, compared to, say, THE SCREAM or something like Francis Bacon. Rand even liked Dali, despite not being so rational. (Yes, I like STARRY NIGHT.) :)

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