suchi glad to have been of service (saw The Bicentennial Man on HBO recently)

I started Crime and Punishment but couldnt finish it. And, Foutainhead went right over my head I dont really relate to that self-flagellating kind of love-story, or such Roarke-like egoism. Books like Fountainhead make me wish for books like the ones by Barbara Cartland
Hmm, indian authors. there's an excellent translation of an Amitav Ghosh book called "shadow lines". excellent tranlsation because the english doesnt sound as if its is being translated from bengali, and the bengali doesnt sound as if its being translated from english. And, I think there's a Penguin publication of a collection of short stories by Tagore (I like his short stories better than his novels) - Kabuliwala should be one of them, being as famous as it is If you ever come across Sarat Chatterji's Srikant (it has 4 parts) or his Shesh Prashna (Last Question?) or his Pather Dabi (Demand of the Road? dunno). Maybe there are some hindi translations, I remmeber seeing some of his works translated in Hindi rather than in english. But be warned - the settings are 19th century bengal, during the british raj, so one may not be able to immediately relate to them.

Oooh look, what this thread has turned into.

Sorry guys, we'll take this discussion elsewhere.

I've always had trouble with Dostoevsky ... I can appreciate his literary skill, but his sense of life is so dark that reading him always feels oppressive to me!

Ayn Rand was writing in reaction to the totalitarian-collectivist modality that was sweeping the world in her era ... she was born in Czarist Russia and lived through the Communist revolution, from which sprang her hatred for all things collectivist ... and her reaction was to glorify the individual over the collective. Being so strongly focused on the political/economic aspects of life with no appreciation for religion (which she identified with the established "state religions" used to control and dominate people), her glorification of the individual took the form of defending ego. One of her best known nonfiction books is "The Virtue of Selfishness."

Her later work, especially "Atlas Shrugged," does a better job of portraying her individualism without making her characters quite so arrogantly egocentric.

I was a big fan of her political views, especially when I was younger ... although I always thought she missed the big picture by lumping all of religion and spirituality into "irrationality" ... and I moved to New York and studied with her for a couple of years in my early twenties. Not a happy woman, but one of the most brilliant minds I've ever encountered.

Well, this thread has wandered off topic, hasn't it?

Love,
Greg

heh heh heh we crossed posts greg

Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th is rather nice

I actually got to see The Night of January 16th on Broadway in the early '70's, it was really good. The audience/"jury" voted for acquital in the performance I saw, although I understand that the verdict was pretty evenly split over the course of the production.

Love,
Greg