Ayn Rand fandom and type

[Economica]

Please only vote if you've actually picked up and started to read at least one of her two major works of fiction, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and if you're reasonably sure of your type.

Do feel free to elaborate on your vote.

(Remaining Sensers: Sorry, but 20 poll options is the max. )

 

[MacGuffin]

I mostly read her essays and non-fiction.

 

[Economica]

I mostly read her essays and non-fiction.

I've never been able to take an interest in her non-fiction.

... I've never been able to finish John Galt's speech, either.

 

[6sticks]

INTJ erotica.

 

[IlyaK1986]

Read Anthem. Her philosophies tell it like it is.

 

[pure_mercury]

Great. I am an ESFJ, and I can't vote. This sucks.

Anyway, I like her politics, liked The Fountainhead, Anthem, and We the Living, dislike her larger philosophical construct, and think she was a crazy bitch who was a horrible person to be around.

 

[heart]

Excellent idea for a thread!

I find her ideas about strong individuality intriquing but she weds them to other base ideas I cannot support.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Expect INTJs to keep the lead forever.

 

[sriv]

I respect her courage of conviction.

...That's about it.

 

[LucrativeSid]

I loved the Fountainhead, it was a GREAT novel, but if Ayn Rand was still alive, I wouldn't be trying to get into her pants or anything. To me the novel just seemed like a great work of fiction and the characters were amazing. That's what I thought about the most when I was done, the characters. I never got into studying her as a person or her philosophies too much, but I at least gave it a brief shot. I just didn't get enough out of it to keep going.

If I end up in the hospital or jail, I'm reading Atlas Shrugged.

 

[The Grey Badger]

How about "I'm INTP and I WAS a fan once."?

 

[Economica]

Anyway, I like her politics, liked The Fountainhead, Anthem, and We the Living, dislike her larger philosophical construct, and think she was a crazy bitch who was a horrible person to be around.

... Sounds like we're in agreement overall.

How about "I'm INTP and I WAS a fan once."?

An INTP (ex-)fan? Do expound!

---

Incidentally, I posted this poll partly because the guy who at age 14 tried to interest me in Atlas Shrugged (it didn't take until a couple of years later) found me on Facebook and he claims to be an INFJ and not an INTJ as I would've thought. I'm like...

 

[Nobody3612]

The Fountainhead is my absolute favorite book, Roark is an amazing character and the philosophy on individuality opened my eyes to what I was doing to myself just to fit in. But I recently read Atlas Shrugged and was bored out of my skull and offended more that once. Like The Grey Badger, I was once a fan.

 

[Edgar]

I've listened to audio of Atlas Shrugged (because there is no way in hell am I reading 1000 pages of anything).

As far as storytelling quality goes, it was rather trite. Basically there are two types of characters in Ayn Rand's world: a competent, self reliant INTJ, and an incompetent, shrill ESFJ. That's her ideal - for everyone to be an INTJ. Bitch, it doesn't work that way!

Francisco's money speech was excellent though.


(Yes my dear NFs, I used the word "bitch". It's in a dictionary, and it's meant to be used.)

 

[Mondo]

I like her fiction but I think Ayn Rand was a total nutjob.

 

[EffEmDoubleyou]

I'm an INTJ and I find her to be a hack writer and an arrogant harpy with no sense of the real world.

 

[Venom]

shes an idiot. I've found that people who have no sense of gray area tend to like her at first, and then [hopefully] out grow her once they realize that shes a horrible offender of a combination of slippery slope/continuum fallacies...

INTJ or ESFJ
Captialism or communism
workaholic or lazy bastard

she has no sense of gray area. In an interview she was quoted as saying {paraphrasing}, "yes, if someone puts their family and friends above maximizing their work, they are bad person"

 

[01011010]

shes an idiot. I've found that people who have no sense of gray area tend to like her at first, and then [hopefully] out grow her once they realize that shes a horrible offender of a combination of slippery slope/continuum fallacies...

INTJ or ESFJ
Captialism or communism
workaholic or lazy bastard

she has no sense of gray area. In an interview she was quoted as saying {paraphrasing}, "yes, if someone puts their family and friends above maximizing their work, they are bad person"

Yes, her extremist views put me off as well.

 

[Economica]

Since I started the poll and voted that I'm a fan, I just want to clarify: I do agree with the criticism of her black-and-white extremism (or as I like to call it, her closed-minded certitude). (She positively makes my head hurt from going .) I think she's a writer with huge blind spots, which have been nicely summed up here: The Benefits and Hazards of the Philosophy of Ayn Rand. That said, I also think she's a writer with huge talent, and her books have had a positive inspirational influence on my life. I continue to strongly recommend them to others, though not without an equally strong disclaimer.

... Come to think of it, maybe I should've gone for a poll without type breakdown and instead featuring a range of gray area options.

 

[ptgatsby]

I wasn't sure how to vote. I've read pretty much all of her work. Way back in my teens I would of called myself a fan.

But after getting a job out of highschool, it was easy to fall into the same mentality, and I sort of did. After that, I tried school... I took some philosophy before dropping out of that, and... my opinion started to change. Later, I took some economics. By the time I hit 23-24, I was no longer a fan. In the present, I'm anything but a fan. It's just another body of work to me, and not a terribly significant one to me anymore.

I guess... that would make me not a fan? But I'm not sure if saying that would help the poll determine type preference for it.