redfarmer Posted February 20, 2005 Report Share Posted February 20, 2005 I've been rereading The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideals, and I've been doing a careful study of Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. What I've been finding as I reread these books is that I'm picking up on concepts that I somehow missed the first time around. It's exciting, like reading them for the first time. I was wondering if anyone else had this exprience the first time you reread Ayn Rand? I'm beginning to wonder if I'll find new things to study if I reread them a third time. (If I'm discovering this many new things with those three books, I can't wait to reread The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurgessLau Posted February 20, 2005 Report Share Posted February 20, 2005 I've been rereading The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideals, and I've been doing a careful study of Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. What I've been finding as I reread these books is that I'm picking up on concepts that I somehow missed the first time around. It's exciting, like reading them for the first time. I was wondering if anyone else had this exprience the first time you reread Ayn Rand? I'm beginning to wonder if I'll find new things to study if I reread them a third time. Yes, every time I reread a book -- whether it is Ayn Rand's ITOE, Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring, or Kant's Critique of Pure Reason -- I gain insights I didn't gain the first time through. This is especially true if, following Ayn Rand's and Edwin Locke's recommendations, I have made thorough notes in the book on my first reading. Those notes make the subsequent readings even more helpful because the preliminary, brush-clearing has been done. The principle involved is one of many I have learned from Leonard Peikoff: learning is a spiraling process. For every "turn" I make progress upward in understanding. The reason is that every "turn" allows me to make more integrations and differentiations. Intellectually this is analogous to looking out over a vast desert landscape. At first, it seems lifeless, but as you become familiar with the main features -- dry gullies, drifts of sand, clear sky -- then you start to notice little clumps of gnarled plants or the tracks of a snake or a buzzard circling high in the sky. Every subsequent time you look at the same landscape you will notice some new detail -- and probably some pattern of details. Some books -- such as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology -- deserve repeated study, at least for some new intellectuals. I am rereading the Ring Trilogy for the fourth time, and seeing -- and feeling -- more than ever. P. S. -- For Ayn Rand's and Edwin Locke's taking of notes in books see Robert Mayhew's Ayn Rand's Marginalia and Dr. Locke's Study Methods and Motivations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redfarmer Posted February 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2005 P. S. -- For Ayn Rand's and Edwin Locke's taking of notes in books see Robert Mayhew's Ayn Rand's Marginalia and Dr. Locke's Study Methods and Motivations. Burgess, As always, thank you so much for your book recommendations! I've been wanting to order Dr. Locke's book for some time and will probably order it soon, possibly at the same time I order Facets of Ayn Rand (another book you recommended to me). I am planning on going back to school in the fall, so now would probably be a good time for me to relearn how to learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prometheus98876 Posted October 4, 2005 Report Share Posted October 4, 2005 I've been rereading The Virtue of Selfishness and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideals, and I've been doing a careful study of Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. What I've been finding as I reread these books is that I'm picking up on concepts that I somehow missed the first time around. It's exciting, like reading them for the first time. I was wondering if anyone else had this exprience the first time you reread Ayn Rand? I'm beginning to wonder if I'll find new things to study if I reread them a third time. (If I'm discovering this many new things with those three books, I can't wait to reread The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.) Definetely better the second time round. I have recently started Atlas Shrugged again (I must stop reading so many books at once). I would imagine that everyone finds that the second and successive times they read any of Ayn Rands work, and indeed anythign with any sort of message, that they discover even something tiny that they missed the first time around, or they might come to understand something that had eluded them. Especially something as complex as Atlas Shrugged. I read Galts speech twice back to back, a) because I really enjoyed it b)to see if I had missed any small point (yes, a few), and C) to help me with my philsophical arguments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarinStone Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 I can't agree any more. I'm reading Atlas Shrugged for the second time, and without spoiling too much, I've caught quite a few things. Sure, i knew immediatly who the third student was later in the book(although i didn't understand who made the motor immediatly), but we've all got to remember - not everybody who started atlas shrugged was an objectivist. So Reardens pulling himself up from the desk because it was only himself who had motivated him forever didn't make as much sense the first time. I can't wait to go through all the other books again. Another thing - I cared a lot more about Midas Mulligan and what Jed Sternes kids had done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 The first time I picked up ITOE I didnt understand a single sentence in that book, so I didnt get very far. I went back to rereading VOS and other books by Rand and eventually gave ITOE another shot, and it was nothing like I remembered. I still find ITOE a little hard at times, but for the most part im starting to understand it a lot better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dondigitalia Posted October 13, 2005 Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 The first time I picked up ITOE I didnt understand a single sentence in that book, so I didnt get very far. I went back to rereading VOS and other books by Rand and eventually gave ITOE another shot, and it was nothing like I remembered. I still find ITOE a little hard at times, but for the most part im starting to understand it a lot better. Keep going back to it once or twice a year. The knowledge contained in ITOE is virtually inexhaustible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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