Happy Birthday Ayn

[Agathon]

That's not exactly saying much.

My humility exposed.

[Commy]

Who is Ayn Rand, is she another fascist, or is it a he?

[Agathon]

Who is Ayn Rand, is she another fascist, or is it a he?

She was the founder of "Objectivism": a pseudo-Aristotelian philosophy with a dash of ill-understood Nietzsche thrown in, and the author of several turgid novels that attempt to argue for said system.

The right has much better philosophers available, but Rand is popular because she simplifies and makes people feel biologically superior to the rest of humanity.

[Bosh]

Originally posted by Agathon


She was the founder of "Objectivism": a pseudo-Aristotelian philosophy with a dash of ill-understood Nietzsche thrown in, and the author of several turgid novels that attempt to argue for said system.

The right has much better philosophers available, but Rand is popular because she simplifies and makes people feel biologically superior to the rest of humanity.

That and all the rape scenes.

[monolith94]

Hey Agathon, speaking of greek philosophy, etc. I just read Eurpides' The Trojan Women and also his Helen. I liked them. Helen was alot funnier than I expected it to be. Are you just greek philosophy, or do you dabble in the literature as well?


Oh, and on Ayn Rand: just imagine how many more bad novels we'd have if she had lived! It boggles the mind.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Boshko

That and all the rape scenes.

rape scenes?

[Agathon]

Hey Agathon, speaking of greek philosophy, etc. I just read Eurpides' The Trojan Women and also his Helen. I liked them. Helen was alot funnier than I expected it to be. Are you just greek philosophy, or do you dabble in the literature as well?

Hardly at all. I'm not sure I could even read that stuff in Greek, since I mainly do prose.

I wish I had the time for more of it though. The Agamemnon is a personal favourite.

Thus he died, and all the life struggled out of him;
and as he died, he spattered me with the dark red
and violent-driven rain of bitter savoured blood
to make me glad, as gardens stand among the showers
of God in glory at the birthtime of the buds.

[monolith94]

Well, you should check out the english translations of The Trojan Women and Helen, they're great. The Trojan Women is quite amazing - it depicts the Trojan Women being divided and taken away by the Greek "heroes". They lament, and Cassandra has a great crazed speech. Andromache is cool in it to, and Hecuba is cool with her old woman schtick. It's very, very anti-war, which sort of surprised me, and still has relevancy to the modern age.

Helen, by the same author, is a comedy. In it, Menelaus and Helen have left Troy, but they've been blown of course. After years of struggle, they wind up in rags on the coast of Egypt. Menelaus leaves Helen in a cave, and goes to ask for help from the Egyptian king. However, he comes across Helen...

THE REAL HELEN! Turns out the Helen at Troy was actually a phantom Helen, not the real thing. The real Helen has been safely locked away in Egypt this whole time, not schtupping Paris. So yeah, that's the premise. It's pretty funny.

[Agathon]

Yeah Euripides has that reputation. I will get around to reading it. I think I have a copy or copies somewhere.

I used to read Homer a lot.

Reading Aristophanes' Clouds is worth it too. Especially the passage on farting and the bit where they talk about the lizard crapping on Socrates.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Boshko
Ayn Rand being dead

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by monolith94
Hey Agathon, speaking of greek philosophy, etc. I just read Eurpides' The Trojan Women

Oh dear lord

Maybe it was the performance I saw, but I couldn't take any more chest-beating, hair-pulling, grief-stricken speeches. It was an endless parade of misery.

[Agathon]

Maybe it was the performance I saw, but I couldn't take any more chest-beating, hair-pulling, grief-stricken speeches. It was an endless parade of misery.

Death and misery to the enemies of the goatish philosophy of life!!!

[monolith94]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Oh dear lord

Maybe it was the performance I saw, but I couldn't take any more chest-beating, hair-pulling, grief-stricken speeches. It was an endless parade of misery.

I have, have, have to object to this. Frankly, I don't think it's a play that ought to be performed, and I say this as an actor. I think that it leaves a much bigger impression, and works much greater as simply a read play. The greek culture of the time was so different, and their plays work so differently that applying the modern acting aesthetic just does not work.

Yes, it is an endless parade of misery, but that's the subject matter of the play. It is an indictment of Greek military adventurist culture, where heroes that rape and pillage are the good guys. But in the Illiad, the thing we read in high school, we never learn that the greeks cold-bloodedly sacrificed Polyxena at Achilles' tomb. People don't tend to think about the tragic death of Astyanax.

Check out the dvd, if it is possible for the play to work as an acted adaptation, I think it does there. It's got Katherine Hepburn and Vanessa Redgrave, and Genevieve Bujold! Of course, they made many cuts, which is probably why it works. Oh, and it has the great, great Brian Blessed.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Ayn Rand is dead!

[Kidlicious]

Agy is alright for a philosophy guy.