Centennial Editions of Ayn Rand’s novels

[Areactor]

To be honest, I don’t know if there is a definition that can literally package cyberpunk. But right after I get from work, I’ll try to sit down and gather my thoughts down and try to pin you something unless Thoyd Loki can do better for you.

Until then, maybe this page I found from Wikipedia could help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-punk

BTW: I understand most Objectivist will not be "Cyberpunk" friendly. A lot of the genre itself is post modern philosophically combining enlightment elements with Japanese belief like say Confucious.

[Thoyd Loki]

Wow jeez Thoyd, if I want to give him a definition I will. No need to prophesies my actions.

Sorry, not trying to step on your toes. But, passing it by reading twice I felt compelled to give a definition. Who knows, maybe you didn't have time.

[Patrick N.]

[...]

If Penguin Publishing wants proof that Bryan Larsen was the right choice, just visit Quent Cordair Fine Art. Every oil painting he's created based on Atlas Shrugged so far (more are to come) has sold immediately upon completion, and many of the red-pen and watercolor sketches as well.

It saddens me that Bryan Larsen’s work wasn’t chosen, as I enjoy his art immensely. Does anyone know why it was rejected?

[Yes]

Bryan Larsen?

I happen to think that this particular study is rather sexy.

[Inspector]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-punk

I was going to define this, but the wiki has a rather complete definition. The whole thing has its origins in the "hard boiled" noir writings of the '20's and '30's which were themselves a reaction by bewildered folks to the rise of the totalitarian state and their lack of knowing the causes for its rise.

[Linda]

It saddens me that Bryan Larsen’s work wasn’t chosen, as I enjoy his art immensely. Does anyone know why it was rejected?

Bryan Larsen was one of two artists still being considered when the publisher chose to change directions and use graphic art on the covers instead. As we understand it, the publisher came to the opinion that the use of graphic

art on the covers will result in higher sales, following a current trend.

Bryan submitted a series of ideational studies for consideration, which are now available for sale.

Three of the studies were completed into finished oil paintings, with more to follow. He will start a new Artist's Studio project this week featuring one of the studies, which happens to be my personal favorite…

[Thoyd Loki]

I like some of his work. But somebody has to give the women in his paintings a sandwich or something, they look malnourished.

[Linda]

Bryan's latest project is now posting in the QCFA Artist's Studio.

" The next piece I will be working on in the Artist’s Studio is another in the series based on cover ideas for Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. This time the subject is Henry Rearden, a steel mill owner and the inventor of a revolutionary metal alloy. In this painting, Rearden will be leaning against a steel beam in his mills, watching the pouring of the first heat of his new metal. The theme is pride in one’s greatest accomplishments. As I discuss the progress of this piece in the studio, I have decided to spend more time on the development of the composition from the original sketch to the final scale sketch before I move on to the painting itself. I think this will allow me to show a little more of the thought process involved in the creation of a painting." --Bryan Larsen

[CICEROSC]

I just saw the centennials for the first time last night. Maybe because I'm a little older than then norm here, I like them -- maybe because they're familiar from the old hard-covers I looked for at the bookstores when I first started reading Ayn Rand.

More importantly, given that these were the original covers (at least of Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) isn't there a likelihood that Ayn Rand liked them and participated in their original selection? Maybe there's a recorded comment from her one way or another that I haven't seen, but especially with Atlas Shrugged, I would think that she had to have given final approval for it, so the cover was actually an artistic choice that was in at least a secondary way part of the work itself.

[Guest Kien]

I like the new cover design for FH.(pb)

The cover, showing a structural framework of a building, concretizes Roark’s philosophy of a modern architecture. The previous cover shows man as an independent-creative individual, the new cover shows a likely work by such a man.

Roark is an engineer-architect by nature. As a student, Roark is good in structural engineering but was expelled for neglecting the "inspirational side" of the profession. Keating the artiste-architect is offered the Beaux Arts upon graduation.

As a practicing architect, Roark’s philosophy of architecture is first Ethical, which is rooted in metaphysics: the law of physics by way of engineering and his epistemology: the law of identity by way of the nature of the building itself. Any esthetics impressions left on the audience by his buildings are not Roark’s primary concern but only as natural consequences of his philosophy of architecture. Just as each snowflake or sunset has a unique beauty as a natural result of the law of Identity, so can a building’s form that is integrated by its own needs and identity.

In a conversation with Heller, Roark describes his philosophy of architecture in the following way: [TF p.136]

"A house can have integrity, just like a person," said Roark, "and just as seldom."

"In what way?"

"Well, look at it. Every piece of it is there because the house needs it—and for no other reason. You see it from here as it is inside. The rooms in which you'll live made the shape. The relation of masses was determined by the distribution of space within. The ornament was determined by the method of construction, an emphasis of the principle that makes it stand. You can see each stress, each support that meets it. Your own eyes go through a structural process when you look at the house, you can follow each step, you see it rise, you know what made it and why it stands.”

“But you've seen buildings with columns that support nothing, with purposeless cornices, with pilasters, moldings, false arches, false windows. You've seen buildings that look as if they contained a single large hall, they have solid columns and single, solid windows six floors high. But you enter and find six stories inside. Or buildings that contain a single hall, but with a façade cut up into floor lines, band courses, tiers of windows. Do you understand the difference? Your house is made by its own needs. Those others are made by the need to impress. The determining motive of your house is in the house. The determining motive of the others is in the audience." [TF p.136]

I think the new cover design is perfect for a novel with Roark, the engineer-architect, as the main hero.

***

The new cover of AS showing Atlas holding up the world is not consistent with the book’s theme. The old cover works with the painting of Atlas shrugged.

Kien

Edited to add a quotation.

Edited February 21, 2005 by Kien