Understanding Ayn Rand: Step one

Having devoured several John Grisham’s I’ve got used to his style so much that his courtroom conversations have become predictable to certain extent. Ayn Rand’s ‘Night of January 16th’ a small play about a murder trial springs surprises. I’ve attempted reading Atlas Shrugged a few years back, but in vain. This work is pretty easy to understand, but I could barely fathom her intended ‘Romantic Symbolism’ message.

In the introduction to the book (which consumes 13% of total number of pages), Ayn Rand states:

A sense of life is a preconceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man’s relationship to existence. I emphasize this last be cause it is a man’s attitude toward life that constitutes the core and motor of his subconscious philosophy. Every work of fiction (and wider: every work of art) is the product and expression of its author’s sense of life. But it may express that sense of life translated into conceptual, i.e. philosophical, terms or it may express only an abstract emotional sum. Night of January 16th is a pure, untranslated abstraction.

Nevertheless, there are some mass-appealing sequences:

Nancy Lee: Mr. Stevens, that supposition is insulting to me
Stevens: I haven’t noticed you sparing insults, Mrs. Faulkner
Nancy Lee: I’m sorry, Mr. Stevens. I assure you that was not my intention

Flint: Mr. Regan, what do you do when prospective clients refuse to pay your protection?
Regan: I’m legally allowed not to understand what you are talking about
Flint: Very well, you don’t have to understand. May I question you as to whether you read the newspapers?
Regan: You may
Flint: Well?
Regan: Question me.

¶ Blogged by Priyank Thatte | Tags: Books, Review