New Height Books Relaunches

[MadManLear]

Hello all! I am ecstatic to announce the complete rebuild of New Height Books, the reconstruction of which has been a consistent side project of mine for about 3 months now.

For those of you who don't know, I created New Height Books in 2004 as a place to house my ever growing list of Romantic Realist literature and Rational Nonfiction. Through the help and suggestions of others the list continued to grow but the original site wasn't nearly good enough to contain it properly. So I tore it down and started from scratch.

New Height Books now boasts a redesign and a total reconstruction of all its pages and functions. By signing up for an account you can review books (and read the the reviews of others) from a pro-reason, individualist perspective, and submit new works as well. I could go on about what has changed, but this is all spelled out on the site, so please pay a visit and let me know what you think!

http://www.newheightbooks.com

Enjoy!

[Gabo]

What a wonderful website, really unique and useful. I've already registered.

A minor question, which may be due to a misunderstanding on my part: how does V for Vendetta fall into the Romantic Realism category? I love both the film and the graphic novel, but still, they seem to be more science fiction, as they are set in a dystopian future, not in our current times. If it does fall into Romantic Realism, then other dystopian books such as 1984 could be included too.

[MadManLear]

Gabo, excellent question, which is precisely why I need a forum on New Height Books, so such things can be discussed! I certainly realize that plenty of my choices will be questioned, and I'm sure anyone who undertook such a compilation would meet the same fate.

I have reasons for including V for Vendetta specifically, but let me preface that by saying I don't think a book or movie must be flawless romantic realism to be included. For instance you might notice that I also included the works of Terry Goodkind, a fantasy writer. On one hand we have the fact that these books include magic, mythical beasts and even travels into the underworld, and on the other the fact that the author is an Objectivist, and his philosophy is explicit in his incredibly heroic and, I believe, well-written novels (not to mention that Goodkind doesn't use magic as a deus ex machina, but rather an extra variable in a world controlled by physical laws). In cases such as this I prefer to focus on the central theme and use that as the arbiter when there is a question as to whether or not a specific work falls within Romantic Realism.

This applies to V for Vendetta, a movie which I think not only does a great job of exposing a very real political danger, but also of showing the joy-loving sense of life that could overcome such a state. And besides the physical enhancements that become the protagonist, everything within the story is possible.

Anthem, by Ayn Rand, is a dystopia as well. But the difference that excludes books like 1984 is not the realist side of romantic realism, but the romantic side. 1984 espouses no explicit values nor rational alternatives to the current society, but is more or less just anti the current state. It does a good job of pointing out what shouldn't be done, but provides no notion of what should be done other than the vagaries of "revolution."

I hope that helps and that I haven't been too verbose! I look forward to your reply and the possibility of reposting this on NHB.

[Gabo]

Thanks for your reply!

I agree with you completely. I think that it would be a shame to leave out artistic works that expose the right sense of life and the right values just because not entirely all of the elements in the work of fiction are realist. Point taken as regards 1984, as well.

Have you read the original graphic novel for V for Vendetta? It's rather more complex than the movie, and a bit too pro-anarchist, but still a worthwhile read, specially if you enjoyed the movie so much.

Another query: would it be possible, in the future, to include songs and music albums as well? If one looks hard enough, there are many songs and musical pieces that portray the right moral values and sense of life.

[MadManLear]

Have you read the original graphic novel for V for Vendetta?

I haven't yet, but have heard similar good things from other Oists. On the side of comics/graphic novels, I'm trying to find more information on Steve Ditko's Mr. A comics, which features an explicity Objectivist hero.

would it be possible, in the future, to include songs and music albums as well? If one looks hard enough, there are many songs and musical pieces that portray the right moral values and sense of life.

I do intent to further this project with the inclusion of music, but I have not yet decided the best method of doing so. This mostly stems from the fact that music's ties to our emotions and philosophy aren't yet understood, and so I would prefer a site dedicated only to music where discussing such matters would be paramount. I don't want to give too much away on a project that hasn't begun yet, but the short answer is yes.

[Gabo]

I haven't yet, but have heard similar good things from other Oists. On the side of comics/graphic novels, I'm trying to find more information on Steve Ditko's Mr. A comics, which features an explicity Objectivist hero.

Check out my thread on The Question, over at the fiction forum. It talks about another Objectivist hero by Ditko, which was the basis of Mr. A.

As for music, it would be interesting to start developing objective criteria for evaluating it. It's a long-term goal that I have.

Edited November 12, 2007 by Gabo