Galt's Gulch

Ask Ayn: A Prediction of Ayn Rand's influence

Posted by Mark 12 years ago to Culture
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The New Yorker prints some Ayn Rand excerpts from Parade mag. What do you think about Rand's influence in 2013?
SOURCE URL: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2013/07/29/130729sh_shouts_hodgman?currentPage=1

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  • Posted by Rocky_Road 12 years ago
    " (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.)"

    Who knows more about this???
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    • Posted by khalling 12 years ago
      this is a parody, rocky
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      • Posted by LetsShrug 12 years ago
        She was actually in the works to make a movie but then the director told her there was no way they could include the entire Galt speech, and she wouldn't have it any other way...and that was the end of that.
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        • Posted by Rocky_Road 12 years ago
          More! More!

          If you can prove that these were really her quotes, then I would have to admit that Ayn just might have really had a pulse...and a sense of humor!
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          • Posted by LetsShrug 12 years ago
            Okay... Prophecy on Netflix at about 49:00 it talks about a brief plan to film it...BUT this would've been prior to what is being talked about on this video. So...ignore me (as usual). :)
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            • Posted by Rocky_Road 12 years ago
              Ain't going to happen (the ignore request).

              I am convinced that Ayn was actually bipolar, and these quotes were her repressed Sybil side.

              I submit that she was actually having some SELFISH fun, and they are real.

              Anyway, I sure hope so...!
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          • Posted by LetsShrug 12 years ago
            I want to say that I saw this in Prophecy of Ayn Rand....I don't remember the Kris Kristofferson part though...I'll go check and see if that's where I saw it.
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            • Posted by TheBestWithinUs 12 years ago
              The movie's full name is "Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged." The would-be producer was Al Ruddy ("The Godfather"). He said he could get Clint Eastwood as Rearden, Fay Dunaway as Dagny and, get ready, Robert Redford as Galt. The deal fell through because he wouldn't give her script approval. Their press conference at "21" was shown, the year was 1972.
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          • Posted by JustinLesniewski 12 years ago
            There was movement on a movie and/or TV production of Atlas Shrugged in the early 1980s. Rand began writing the script.

            However, no actors were ever attached and Rand never made any statements about who she wanted to play John Galt. NONE of the statements in the Hodgeman article are actual quotes. The article is intended as pure parody based on known facts about her and her life.
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      • Posted by Rocky_Road 12 years ago
        Too bad..she had a great choice for 1982.

        Or are you saying that all the quotes were parody?
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        • Posted by khalling 12 years ago
          I'm not sure about all of it. I somehow remember her enjoying "Charlie's Angels."
          I can't find anything on Caddyshack. but I found a great Emo Phllips quote:
          "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.
          Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way
          so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me."


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  • Posted by TheBestWithinUs 12 years ago
    Very good! Almost contacted Iris Bell to ask about the "Parade" column when I finally got it. Just the right amount of fact and fiction (and sarcasm).

    She really did write an article for "Readers Digest" as we'll as a syndicated column for a while.

    To answer your question, I see many people being comfortable and assertive with their own self worth today than when I was a child or young adult. That is at least partially due to her.

    Many people, when they see me reading AS, remark that they have read it or "The Fountainhead" You can't read her without her affecting you some way.

    I don't know how many conversations I've had about her at Nat Sherman's most of them positive.
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  • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 12 years ago
    I voted "Thumbs down" on this fakery. It might be amusing if some context were offered, such as other similar travesties showing the gross misrepresentation of Ayn Rand's life and ideas.

    If you have a link to her "Parade" magazine piece, please present it. I do have her "Reader's Digest" article here on my shelf. Some of her columns for the LA Times, for instance her eulogy to Marilyn Monroe, were reprinted in authentic media.

    This slam by John Hodgman in The New Yorker is not even a good parody, if such a thing were possible. Unlike Ayn Rand, I actually do appreciate self-deprecating humor, which is why I enjoy "Big Bang Theory" - would some Pow'r the giftee gie us to see ourselves as others see us. But that article was just shallow. I fail to see the humor.

    Speaking, though, of Ayn Rand's sense of humor, she was a fan of "Prof. Wendell Corey: the world's foremost authority."
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