Without the state

Atlas Shrugged the Movie...

I freely admit to have never read Ayn Rand's doorstop of  a book 'Atlas Shrugged' . To be honest the  sheer repellent awfullness of 'The Fountainhead' was enough to make sure I never went near anything by her again. I was thus, underwhelmed to say the least, by the idea that anyone would waste good money on making a film from anything she had written.

I know it is possible of course to make good movies out of bad books - and believe me even if Atlas Shrugged is 10 times better than The Fountainhead it is still a bad book - but the reviews don't seem encouraging. The Randites of course love it and pop out of the woodwork to heap venom on any critical reviewer.

I still think this is probably a good summary though:

‘There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.'

Reverie

In this book from The Tate about the artist Sir Terry Frost, I found this:

"To look at a painting which gives you the opportunity to have solitude, to be yourself and to be able to wander into reverie, is more than hedonistic, it's spiritual".

Until now I have never 'got' the work of Mark Rothko - I loved his way with paint, but never understood the paintings themselves. Somehow this quote managed to pin down for me their essentially meditative nature.

Which leads me to this from Rothko:

"Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness. "

In a strange way this has also given me a focus for my own abstract work, where I have I think always had this guilty feeling that I was simply making patterns - which for me is decoration not art. Consequently I am preparing a series based on this idea of reverie and on the idea of looking into and through a painting and finding yourself as much as the artist. Time will tell...

Ayn Rand at Harry's Place

I've never read Atlas Shrugged - I couldn't take any more after The Fountainhead, which has to be the worst book I have ever read. Repellent philosophy,appalling writing and non-stop whinging.

Rand clearly stills rings bells with some people though. My review of The Fountainhead is probably my most read blog post ever.

http://ibanda.blogs.com/panchromatica/2005/01/the_fountainhea.html

If you want real libertarian fiction, with a hero who is a whole human being, with a joy in life that comes bursting off the page, who is full of good humour and gentility, who deeply cares for his fellow human beings and who avoids and subverts the state at every opportunity then read H E Bates' books about Pop Larkin, starting with The Darling Buds of May.

Star Wars - what happens after Episode 6?

I've had the DVDs of the two Star Wars trilogies for a while, but never had the free time to watch them in story sequence until recently, while recovering from illness. The remastered original trilogy looks great, Lucas at last having the capacity to make it look as he originally conceived it. The dialogue is of course as clunky as ever, but the great sweep of the story still carries you along, first the tragedy of Anikin Skywalker, then the triumph of his son Luke in the face of the same moral dilemma and the eventual restoration of Anikin. Lucas is often said to have conceived the story as three trilogies. He now says that this is not the case and that the 6 films we now have are all there will be. Looking at the story arcs, it does look difficult to think of anything that would be anything other than a warming over of themes in the first two trilogies. 

One interesting option would be to take the story a long way forward and marry it into the world of Ian M Banks' Culture novels. There are seeds in the two trilogies that could be picked up and developed, like androids and the various mechanical creatures that inhabit the background of many scenes. R2D2 and C3P0 might even survive into that future. A conflict between the straight laced Jedi and and Bank's Special Circumstances would have the potential for a great deal of moral ambiguity and allow the storyline to explore some of the less acceptable aspects of the Republic like its excessive centrality.

Just what IS art anyway?

Any general theory of art must begin with this supposition: that man responds to the shape and surface and mass of things present to his senses, and that certain arrangements in the proportion of the shape and surface and mass of things result in a pleasurable sensation, whilst the lack of such arrangements leads to indifference or even to positive discomfort and revulsion.

Herbert Read The Meaning of Art

Not just me then...

BBC NEWS | Magazine | What does your bookcase say about you?.

A long time ago, I read that as long as a house has books on the shelves and art on the walls, it's a home. That counsel has served me pretty well. But Ayn Rand is always a deal-breaker. Whenever I visit someone's home for the first time, I scan the bookcases. If I see any Rand, I glance anxiously at my watch, and announce that I'd almost forgotten that I was expected elsewhere and really, really must be going.

How to be an artist (perhaps)

It's a truism I suppose, that as we get older, our tastes change and develop. My own late involvement in things artistic, coupled with thoughts about ageing as covered by Ronni Bennett has however caused me to think about this rather more deeply

I'm not alone in developing an interest in art late in life. Grandma Moses for example took it up even later than me, in her 70s. I want to know however if there are common factors or triggers. Grandma Moses was an embroiderer before she took up painting. Harry Bell, as I remember from our school days together, seems to have had a natural talent for drawing, but didn't fully pursue it until his 40s, when he went back to university and took a Fine Art degree.

In my case I've always been as much interested in the idea of creativity as in being creative. I first read Arthur Koestler's wonderful book The Act of Creation, some years ago and I suppose that ties in with one of my other interests, philosophy. I remember years ago on a training course, coming across Eric Berne's Transactional Analysis and in the course of some quiz, scoring highly on the Adult and Child axes, which according to the tutor was a strong indicator of creativity. I have to admit however, that after thirty years working in local government, I didn't come across many people who were obviously creative- or at least who tried to be creativity to their daily work. Any signs of a creative spark were seen not as something to encourage or build upon, but to be stamped out like a fallen ember from the fire.

It seems possible therefore that one factor that drives people towards creative activities in later life is that in their working lives creativity was suppressed. I have no idea of the conditions of Harry's working environment, but I know it was in the Civil Service, which from my contacts over the years is even more suspicious of new ideas than local government.

I do wonder how much creativity is locked up and suppressed by the demands of work, and what the impact would be for all of us if that creativity could be set free.

Book meme (via Norm)

What was the last book you bought?

I think probably 'The Execution Channel' by Ken McLeod

Name a book you have read more than once

Probably hundreds, but recently 'The Kindness of Women' by J G Ballard, 'Earth Abides', by George R Stewart, 'In the Wet' by Nevil Shute, 'Cyteen' by C J Cherryh, 'The Illuminatus Trilogy' by Shea and Wilson and more generally I keep going back to Dickens, Wodehouse, Heinlein

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

Yes at the risk of repeating myself - Architecture: City Sense, by Theo Crosby did just that. There have been many books since that have brought me up with a jolt, but nothing has had the impact of this one.

How do you choose a book? e.g., by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

I find them in all sorts of ways - book lists, blog posts, reviews, 'others bought this' on Amazon.

Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?

No

What's more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

It needs to hang together - good writing on its own isn't enough for me - it has to be saying something. A gripping plot on the other hand is great for the times you don't want to be mentally engaged, but diverted. Having said that of course without good writing a gripping plotline is easily thrown away.

Most loved/memorable character

Betsy Trotwood, Jeeves, Lazarus Long (I have a slightly ambiguous relationship with this last)

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

Just and Unjust Wars by Michael Walzer, PrairyErth by William Least Heat-Moon, Just Law by Helena Kennedy, The End of Politics by Chris Dillow and The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bkorn Lomborg

What was the last book you've read, and when was it?

Lomborg

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

I see no point in persisting with fiction I am not enjoying, but I tend simply to lose interest rather than actively saying 'No'. Non-fiction is slightly different, but even then since I no longer have to read anything, I will give up if the writing is bad. I don't give up because I disagree however.

I have never finished Midnight's Children or A Glastonbury Romance, several times.

(via Norm)

Quote of the Day

It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.

    Good Omens.

[via: slacktivist]

Personal publishing - Blurb * Lulu

As commercial book publishing crashes, personal book publishing is booming. Personal book making entails printing high-quality books in very small quantities, including quantities of one. New technologies permit anyone to print one copy of a softcover or hardcover book, including all-color photo books. These printed-on-demand books are indistinguishable from commercially printed books. In fact, some of the books you buy on Amazon are manufactured with this same technology. You just can't tell the difference.

A good review of the options.

[via Rebecca Blood]