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Hello,

I am a student of Objectivism and as of yet have found nothing that I cannot agree with in Rand’s philosophy. It was refreshing to first read _The Fountainhead_ and later _Atlas Shrugged_ and see an answer to all of my “why’s” I asked while growing up.

My main goal – everything I do – is aimed at writing. I have already written one book, which I started before I really began to integrate Objectivism into my life. Now that I read my book I see too many fallacies in my plot/theme structure to pursue publishing it. What I realized is that I had no understanding of how to create Romantic larger than life characters. (In fact I hadn’t even realized until somewhat recently that this was what was lacking in my writing). There were good things going on in the book and I view the entire +700 pages as an exercise in writing and probably the only way for me to learn what not to do in the future (for instance I have a better idea of how to go about developing the plot, theme and style and a better understanding of each of these as they pertain to writing).

I am not currently enrolled in college and have had a hard time devoting myself to college because of the vileness of the philosophy (or non-philosophy) that all of my teachers hold. I also hate going and seeing how low the standards are so that more people can pass their classes. However, I have read what Peikoff says about school and that has helped renew my desire to go back to school. Therefore, I hope to enroll in college again in the next semester or two, and I plan to just go full time and make it happen.

Right now I work two jobs and spend most of my spare time reading (I have noticed a real lack in my knowledge of world history and so have been spending a lot of time in the library reading a text book on world history – I never actually took a world history class in high school and haven’t taken one in college yet). If anyone has a suggestion of an easily available, objective history textbook please let me know!

I look forward to continuing to read the discussions on this forum. So far I have been fairly impressed with some of the poster’s true understanding of Objectivism and their ability to defend with integrity their position. I have spent very little time talking with anyone in the last couple of years (I’ve been some what of a hermit in my own way) and I am excited to see how other people think of Objectivism and it’s relation to their own lives. Of all the influences in my life Objectivism has had the largest impact on how I look at the world.

I love to read fiction; I love to see fantastic Romantic art (I love the Quent Cordair website and I especially like Bryan Larsen, Damon-A.H. Denys, Quent Cordair, Han Wu Shen and Carol Rosemond). I love music. I play the clarinet and look for any music with virtuoso playing. There is a local pianist named John Schmidt who has three songs that I absolutely love (one is called All of Me). I am always looking for good music or good authors to read.

I look forward to getting to know other Objectivists and learning how better to integrate this fantastic philosophy in all aspects of my life.

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Welcome to the forum!

I am a philosopher/college student/future philosophy professor/writer primarily. I also play the trumpet for recreation and I enjoy a lot of classical music. My favorite composers are Tchaikovsky, Sousa, Bach, John Williams (the modern composer of a lot of scores for movies such as The Star Wars Trilogy), etc. I especially enjoy heroic and epic pieces, as well as pieces that illustrate the greatness of man and his life.

I also despise the philosophies of most of the professors I encounter here at college, but it allows me to examine the errors in their philosophies and discover more about philosophy in the process.

I have plenty of suggestions for great music to listen to, so feel free to contact me about it. I love listening to the great music that I do know and I'm certainly looking for more music of that kind.

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Hello Ashley, and welcome to the board! That was a better introduction to you than I've had in person yet, so it was good to read.

While a lot of the irrational ideas in universities today are indeed disgusting, the more I learn about them the more I realize that learning about them is a good thing--because it makes me better able to weed bad ideas out of my own thinking and defend myself against them in the future. A very appropriate passage of Ayn Rand's comes to mind here: "If philosophy can be that evil, why should one study it? Particularly, why should one study the philosophical theories which are blatantly false, make no sense, and bare no relation to real life? My answer is: In self-protection...If you brush them aside, saying: 'Why should I study that stuff when I know it's nonsense?'--you are mistaken. It is nonsense, but you don't know it...not so long as you are unable to refute them...In military science, you know the importance of keeping track of the enemy's weapons, strategy and tactics--and of being prepared to counter them. The same is true in philosophy: you have to understand the enemy's ideas and be prepared to refute them, you have to know his basic arguments and be able to blast them." (From "Philosophy: Who Needs It.")

I would be interested in talking to you more about the book you wrote, and about writing in general. We should get together sometime and do that.

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I liked the quote from AR - it is easier almost to think of it as a battle that I am preparing for...

Ash, you said: I would be interested in talking to you more about the book you wrote, and about writing in general. We should get together sometime and do that.

We should :unsure:

I was thinking of buying some new Tchaikovsky - any suggestions of where to start?

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I was thinking of buying some new Tchaikovsky - any suggestions of where to start?

Well, if you don't already have Swan Lake, get that. (I finally got my own copy of that just yesterday.) Umm...I don't know what else to recommend off the top of my head. What do you already have?

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I love Tchaikovsky.

I would suggest:

1812 Overture (my personal favorite)

Nutcracker Suite

The Sleeping Beauty (especially Introduction, Adagio, and Waltz)

Eugene Onegin: Polonaise

There are many others that I do not know the names of, but will be checking out.

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