Two things happened today.
I revisited Ayn Rand after years. I’m part of a Book Club that decided
to do Night of the January 16th this month.
The only popular Ayn Rand book I hadn’t read. And no, surprisingly,
age hasn’t lessened her appeal for me.
I’ve heard this from many friends. While you go through an Ayn Rand
phase in college, later, as life edges you towards a smoother whisky, u dodge
ur edges and, a need for radical philosophy.
Unfortunately, doesn’t hold true for me.
Loved it then. Love it now.
Never really had the gumption to follow it totally though.
Individualistic thought to the point of self destruction, I guess, was
too radical for even me.
Incidentally, I also began today with a movie that has been the talk
of discerning movie goers most of the last few months.
Missed it in the hall, and ended up planning so much to take time out
for an orchestrated movie experience at home that, finally ended up doing a
morning quickie today.
6 am..Shaitan..me and my AC rajaaii J
I didn’t like Shaitan… it may be the face of today’s moneyed youth but
I’m sorry I don’t get it.
By the way I love the genre..I’m all for experimentative cinema…..I
don’t think that’s what it was though..it was contrived cinema.
Coming back to how this connects with the book…Ayn Rand is also
contrived…she speaks of ideology that is beyond us.
Aspirational, superbly crafted, yet, illusionary.
However, the difference is there is philosophical truth that is
exaggerated to enunciate.
Shaitan was a lot of enunciation, bereft of any connect but the
obvious.
There are afew lines in the book that could sum up the philosophical
premise of Shaitan beautifully..let me give them to u :
Flint : Now, tell us, didn’t Mr Faulkner have a clear conception of
the difference between right and wrong?
Karen : Bjorn never thought of things as right or wrong. To him, it
was only u can or u can’t. he always could.
I kept waiting for something like this in the movie..powerful, the
obvious, direct.
So we did the drugs, and the sassy dialogues, the indulgent khoya
khoya chand which u could have replaced with any old song sung in the same
style and, we would have still lapped it up…but u forgot the damn soul.
When every Ayn Rand hero/heroine speaks of “belief in nothing but own
pleasure”, the mind creates a context.
When the same hero then prefers to destroy the ideal he/she has
created to not do injustice to it, I believe. Even though its not something I
endorse.
I missed that in Shaitan.
The core belief.
I’ve realized that I love experiences that make me go back to my
beliefs, evaluate the distance I’ve traversed in the years that I’ve led.
I could write loads on another book that made me change overnight – 40
Rules of Love….but that’s for another time, another post.
Love, anyway, is worth more than a passing mention …
2 comments:
nice :)
Svety ur words have the angst of a hidden person inside u who is yearning to raise its head and flood the words....
I am waiting for your take on 40 rules....love has amazing shades and I'd like to see your colors....
Go on champ and rule the world of words....we are waiting in the galleries to applaud.
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