Customer Reviews
Entertaining and thought-provoking - By: Pieter, 13 Aug 2007 
This is a compelling work on the nature & meaning of art. Besides containing Rand's manifesto, it is also a highly entertaining piece of criticism & analysis of art, culture & psychology.
In the introductory chapter: The Psycho-Epistemology Of Art, Rand defines art as a selective recreation of reality according to the artist's metaphysical value judgements. Art brings one's concepts to the perceptual level of conscience & enables one to grasp them directly as if they were precepts.
Chapter 2, Philosophy And Sense Of Life, deals with the "merciless recorder" that is the integrating mechanism of the subconscious mind. The next chapter, Art And Sense Of Life, opens with a fascinating observation on a hypothetical painting. Here Rand further explains the concept of a sense of life as it manifests in art. She argues that the emotion involved in art is automaticallly immediate & that it holds a deeply personal value-significance to the person experiencing it.
Art And Cognition is devoted to the question: What are the valid forms of art, & why? Here the author explores literature, painting, sculpture, music & architecture in turn. I find her speculations on music particularly thought-provoking.
Rand refers to Aristotle in discussing the attributes of the novel in Basic Principles Of Literature: theme, plot, characterization & style. Chapter 6 provides a definition of Romanticism, which recognizes volition, as opposed to Naturalism which denies it. She identifies determinism as the basic premise of naturalism in The Aesthetic Vacuum Of Our Age & hails the appearance of the novel in the 19th century as the vehicle of Romanticism.
Other essays include discussions on bootleg romanticism & moral treason in art, whilst the actual manifesto appears in chapter 11: The Goal Of My Writing & chapter 10: Introduction To Ninety-Three. This essay is an abbreviated version of the introduction she wrote for a 1962 edition of the book by Victor Hugo. The Romantic Manifesto concludes with The Simplest Thing In The World, a short story that illustrates the nature of the creative process.
Throughout this fascinating book, Rand provides examples of different manifestations of art plus informed criticism of personalities & a wide variety of works like Anna Karenina, Thomas Aquinas, The Avengers, Balzac, Dostoevsky, Lord Byron, Camille, Günter Grass, Salvador Dali, Don Carlos, Dumas, Flaubert, Ian Fleming, Gone With The Wind, Goya, O Henry, Alfred Hitchcock, Victor Hugo, Boris Karloff, Fritz Lang, Ira Levin, Michelangelo, Edgar Allan Poe, Friedrich Schiller, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Jan Vermeer, HG Wells, Thomas Wolfe & Emile Zola. Both high & popular culture is covered.
One does not need to agree with Rand's analyses & manifesto to find this a most stimulating & highly entertaining read. Many of her insights are valid & quite relevant to the state of culture & civilization today.
Romantic Fascism - By: , 27 May 1999 
Rand was a Romantic Totalitarian.
Those who calll Rand a 'fascist' are correctly recognizing her totalitarian tendencies - as is easily demonstrated by 'other arguments' based on her own 'Romantic' writings.
For example, Rand argued (in 'The Nature of Government') that a proper government holds a monopoly on the legal use of force & that alll citizens delegate their rights of self-defense to it, utterly forswearing the personal use of retaliatory force. (The mere existence of the Second Amendment indicates that Rand didn't have any too firm a grasp of the intentions of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. in this regard.)
Even more surprisingly, she actuallly expected *objective legislation* to result from this ludicrously lopsided arrangement of incentives. Why in the world such a government would pass nice 'Objectivist' laws was beyond her meager powers to explain. (To paraphrase her: 'The laws are here. How did they get here? *Somehow*.')
Her 'Romantic' literature? ATLAS SHRUGGED is, after alll, about the *destroying* (Rand's word) of the world by the withdrawal of the 'best minds.' And as she makes painfully clear, 'destroying' means destroying; the people left behind are supposed to *die*, & many of them do. (See the infamous 'train tunnel' scene.)
No, she was not literallly a 'fascist.' But anybody who ever so much as met her became quickly aware of her psychological terror tactics. In everything *except* politics, she was totalitarian to the core - and, as I indicated above, even her politics were *implicitly* totalitarian even though neither she nor her 'followers' seem to have noticed.
In this book, Rand explains that she was up to exactly what I have described: the projection of a stylized ideal world in conformity to her own values - meaning a world in which everybody who disagreed with her *died*.
She was right to denounce 'selflessness'. What she & her 'followers' have failed to recognize is that sycophantic devotion to a deified cult founder is the most abject form of *selflessness* there is. Hard-core Rand-worshippers are such 'selfless' Randroids themselves that they fail to recognize how badly Rand wanted everyone else dead, dead, dead.
An astonishingly clear manual for writers of fiction - By: , 11 May 1999 I'm an aspiring writer. I also like Ayn Rand enough to be considered a "randroid" (love it, & props to whoever came up with it) by some. However, that aside, reading the Romantic Manifesto was truly a life changing experience. Her fiction has inspired me on many levels, but I would not say they have been life altering. However, this book, this manifesto, has shown me, in easy to understand terms, what makes good fiction, & what kind of art I want to participate in. So much of the crap that is held in esteem at my university is utterly nonintelligible. Why? Great ideas can have simple explanations. That is, I think, Rand's greatest gift. Passionate simplicity. The Romantic Manifesto contains within a blueprint for writers, a blueprint that I already carried in my heart & in my head, but lacked the words to put to paper. For the first time, I'm truly proud of what I write, & I know where it will take me. Thanks Ayn. Any aspiring writer of fiction should read this.
Reviews Reviewed and Critiziced - By: , 10 May 1999 
After reading several on-line reviews of Ayn Rand's books at Amazon.com, I come to realise that there are the two usual categories of people doing the reviewing: the one's who love her ideas & the one's that hate them. Fine with me, but why can't the people who hate her give any other arguments that she is 'fascist', 'dangerous' or 'takes a strong grip on her readers'? Fascist - she is not (look up a definition of fascism in any dictionary), dangerous - for whom?, & the 'grip' she delivers is a positive sense of life & that, of course, captures a lot of people. I believe that Mats Landstrom (from Sweden) & others with him should try to ask themselves what it is that they 'hate' about Ayn Rand & when doing so they will hopefully reach an answer about themselves (or of their psyche), & how they see life. Then they (hopefully) could give any reasonable, authentic 'arguments' why they dislike Ayn Rand - instead of alll the predictable, untrue, & highly non-personal views.
Thanks for listening to my words. Think about them.
This book presents a clear view of the ideals of art. - By: , 04 Apr 1999 Ayn Rand's creative genius once again shines through. She shows her commitment to the expression of her philosophy in a practical reality.
