Physical Self Improvement

[JASKN]

Beautiful post, Dismuke.

[Vladimir Berkov]

You make a good argument, yet I still have some remaining worries.

You say that Rand's use of physical perfection is appropriate only in the context of a novel. This may be true, but still it is very dangerous when you combine it with the way Ayn Rand wrote fiction. She very much intended novels like Atlas Shrugged to carry a philosophic and political message, not just a literary one. As such, she must have realized that her readers would seek meaning in her books as a way to help them live their lives. Thus including things which are appropriate only to a novel, but aren't applicable or desirable in real life leads to a real risk of people misunderstanding her philosophy.

It is easy to figure out some things in the novels which are literary only. For example, someone would be a fool to try to build a version of Galt's generator based on reading Atlas Shrugged. But I find it very unclear whether the physical appearance and abilities of the characters is meant to be read in the same light. You yourself stated that this sort of misunderstanding of Rand's intentions is common among readers of her work, and understand its potential hazards.

When you look at characters in the books which are "morally perfect" yet not as intelligent or as able or as physically perfect as the heroes, you see that they usually end up meeting some unhappy or tragic fate. For example, a reader of Atlas Shrugged who can identify with Willers as an example of how a morally perfect individual might look in his own life experience, is not likely to be inspired by Eddie's fate at the end of Atlas Shrugged. The same could be said for Kira's fate at the end of We The Living.

In short, the message you state that Rand was really trying to make is not at all clear simply by reading her novels and in fact there is much in the novels which tends to create an appearance of an opposite intention.

[Inspector]

This may be true, but still it is very dangerous when you combine it with the way Ayn Rand wrote fiction.

I think it's only dangerous if combined with a reader suffering from the intrinsic morality. As common as that is, it would be wrong to expect Ayn Rand to cripple her masterpiece for the sake of readers who bring their own problems into the reading. I never had a lick of this problem when I read Atlas because I was well familiar with (and much enjoyed) heroic media.

When you look at characters in the books which are "morally perfect" yet not as intelligent or as able or as physically perfect as the heroes, you see that they usually end up meeting some unhappy or tragic fate. For example, a reader of Atlas Shrugged who can identify with Willers as an example of how a morally perfect individual might look in his own life experience, is not likely to be inspired by Eddie's fate at the end of Atlas Shrugged. The same could be said for Kira's fate at the end of We The Living.

Their tragic fates were intentional because she was trying to show what happens to ordinary people (even perfectly moral ones) when the men of ability are abused by society. It was to show the grave importance of not shackling the able.

Edited July 3, 2006 by Inspector