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John C. Wright's Golden Age Trilogy

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StrictlyLogical

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  • 6 years later...

When in the course of daily events it becomes necessary to post to a nearly 7 year old thread...

I was looking at a quote this morning that had a profound impact at the time it was copied. In the wake of the recent passing of Terry Goodkind, curiosity struck me and following that white rabbit lead me to the google search of "John C. Wright, Objectivism". Mr. Wright is passingly familiar with Objectivism and has weighed in on various aspects in years gone by in his online journal.

The Golden Age stands on its own merit. The book was thoroughly enjoyed, albeit, it took me a number of passes to take it in its interwoven tapestry of allegory, metaphor and symbolism.

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From the last page of my copy of this trilogy, (pg. 836):

He said that to be happy was to know the definition of your nature, and to live accordingly. If you were a penguin, learn how to do what penguins are best adapted to, which was to swim, and fish, and bear the cold, and not to dream of flying. But if you were a man! You're nature was that of a rational being. Reason could tell you not to desire things beyond your power. Your mind, your will, your judgment, are under your control; the outside world, the options of others, all of that is not. Control what you can control, and leave the rest to itself. Desire to have a sound mind, a strong will, and good judgment, and you shall have them. But deal with the world outside you as if it were a dream, interesting, perhaps, but not of ultimate importance. And unlike penguins...Dream of flying."

"[D]eal with the world outside you as if it were a dream, interesting, perhaps, but not of ultimate importance" struck me as being significant. John C. Wright, here,  shares the platonic view of the shadows from the fires on the walls of the cave as illusary compared to those provided by the sunlight sans the cave.

Edited by dream_weaver
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7 hours ago, dream_weaver said:

From the last page of my copy of this trilogy, (pg. 836):

He said that to be happy was to know the definition of your nature, and to live accordingly. If you were a penguin, learn how to do what penguins are best adapted to, which was to swim, and fish, and bear the cold, and not to dream of flying. But if you were a man! You're nature was that of a rational being. Reason could tell you not to desire things beyond your power. Your mind, your will, your judgment, are under your control; the outside world, the options of others, all of that is not. Control what you can control, and leave the rest to itself. Desire to have a sound mind, a strong will, and good judgment, and you shall have them. But deal with the world outside you as if it were a dream, interesting, perhaps, but not of ultimate importance. And unlike penguins...Dream of flying."

"[D]eal with the world outside you as if it were a dream, interesting, perhaps, but not of ultimate importance" struck me as being significant. John C. Wright, here,  shares the platonic view of the shadows from the fires on the walls of the cave as illusary compared to those provided by the sunlight sans the cave.

Which character is the originator of this platonic view?  Not the protagonist I presume?

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Ah... so a disembodied artificial immortal (til the heat death of the universe) intelligence has a somewhat platonic perspective on the external world.  But in some sense this would be expected?

I suspect the sense of “dream” used also is broad and poetic rather than technical.

Myhaps there are times such advice is not wholly useless, and perhaps at others even to reverse the metaphor, while careful not to stray into self abnegation..  treat yourself as a precious and unique dream the universe is having, one which it will awake from never to have again.

 

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