I am looking for any fiction books that have Objectivist heroes or Objectivist overtones (Non-Rand books). Doesn’t necessarily need to portray Objectivism in a good light or bad.
Some examples of what I mean:
Troy Rising Series, by John Ringo – The main character, Tyler Vernon, is pretty much an Objectivist hero I would say, libertarian anyway.
Bioshock: Rapture, by John Shirley – Prequel novel to the video game. It is about an Objectivist utopia that goes bad. Andrew Ryan, the creator of the underwater city is supposed to be an Objectivist hero type, though he strays pretty far off an Objectivist path pretty quick. Casts Objectivism in a negative light.
Watchmen, by Alan Moore – A graphic novel. The character Rorschach is a tribute/spoof of what Alan Moore thinks of Objectivism. Based on another comic book character, the Question (also Objectivist).
The Sword of Truth Series, by Terry Goodkind – A great fantasy series with true Objectivist heroes. Love this series.
Rand was a great admirer of Calumet K by Merwin and Webster, early 20th-century pop novelists. Some of their books are available through Amazon, some of those for as little as nothing at all on Kindle. I prefer The Short Line War to Calumet K, and Comrade John is my favorite of them all. I suspect it’s where Rand came across the idea of architectural ghosting that figures in The Fountainhead.
They wrote many more, singularly or together, which you can find in print or online with the help of a search engine.
She was also a fan of Noel Coward, whose plays are blissfully free of any philosophy at all. He was the model for Winston Ayers in Her Second Career (in The Early Ayn Rand), and The Fountainhead alludes briefly to Design for Living. LA people will be happy to learn that the Pasadena Playhouse is doing Fallen Angels in February (if you aren’t local, don’t hesitate to travel from the ends of the earth).
Kay Nolte Smith, Erika Holzer and Shelley Reuben are some others who were members of Rand’s circle. Smith and Holzer wrote articles in The Objectivist, and Reuben was a typist on Atlas Shrugged.
I read most of Smith’s novels and found most of them unimpressive. The exception is A Tale of the Wind, one of my all-time favorites by anybody. It’s a multigenerational epic of the nineteenth-century French theater. Elegy for a Soprano is fun as a romanàclef about You Know Who (transformed into the titular diva), but hokey as a mystery.
Holzer’s An Eye for an Eye became a movie with Sally Field. Neither this book nor Double Crossing was a hit with me.
Nor did I like Reuben’s Weeping. She gives her protagonist a lot of foibles and weaknesses that do nothing for the story. My surmise is that she was doing this in order to get out from under Rand’s literary shadow. Lots of interesting technical detail about arson detection.
In the sci-fi genre I would recommend Robert Heinlein. I recently reread The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, there are at least a few characters in that novel that one may want to share a beer with , so to speak.
Two novels mentioned by Ron Merrill in Ideas and Explained* are by Cameron Hawley. They are Executive Suite (1952)* and Cash McCall (1955). They portray commerce as an honorable activity and leadership in a business enterprise as a noble responsibility.
I think most readers who enjoy Rand’s literature would enjoy John Steinbeck’s masterpiece East of Eden (1953). (The movie made of this book shows no trace of the greatness of the book.) The theme it dramatizes is written on its sleeve: the power and glory of human free will. Magnificent.
I found Ken Follet’s “The Pillars of the Earth” to have an Objectivist overtone.
I enjoyed Follet’s Pillars and the sequel The World Without End. He really concretised the power of commerce. Though the dialouge at times I think fell short in that it seemed too ‘modern’ at times.
Two novels mentioned by Ron Merrill in Ideas and Explained* are by Cameron Hawley. They are Executive Suite (1952)* and Cash McCall (1955). They portray commerce as an honorable activity and leadership in a business enterprise as a noble responsibility.
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An interesting article about contemporary popularity of business novels in Japan here.
