I happily poked fun of Ayn Rand’s masterpiece, because it is a pretentious pile of doggerel.
Here’s that post: The Red Pen of Doom murders THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand
However, John Hodgman did something beautiful with Ayn Rand recently in The New Yorker, and you need to read this thing. It’s a long-lost advice column in Parade Magazine, written by Ayn Rand in 1980.
Here’s the link: Ask Ayn
And here’s my favorite bit from his piece:
Some of you wrote in last week to express surprise that, when I appeared on the Phil Donahue program, I told him that I was a fan of “Charlie’s Angels.” This just shows how poor your critical thinking is. It should be obvious why I love “Charlie’s Angels.” The show is about three beautiful women who are not ashamed of their beauty or their ability at solving crimes. And when their talents were not appreciated by the police department and they were forced to become crossing guards, they refused!
They refused to take money from the government to train American children to believe that the state will forever protect them from risk! They left their jobs and made new lives for themselves in a private capitalist enterprise. They went Galt. (This is a reference to my book “Atlas Shrugged,” which will be made into a movie in the year 1982, and the market will reward it with success. We have already cast Kris Kristofferson—my first choice!—as John Galt.)
What kind of advice would Ayn Rand give today?
The Red Pen of Doom 