Randian Themes in Literature
I really really really really really didn't want to start a new topic, even this one. I had a bad shock today and all I want to do is curl up and lick my wounds.
Anyway, comments and posts on here keep making me think of stories with Randian themes or scenes in them, so I thought I'd start a post where I (and others) could post references.
Anyway, comments and posts on here keep making me think of stories with Randian themes or scenes in them, so I thought I'd start a post where I (and others) could post references.
Oh wait... >_>
"No Truce With Kings", by Poul Anderson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Truce_w...
Post apocalyptic world where the central planners are battling a feudalistic clan system, with do-gooders messing everything up for the worse.
And "The Highest Treason" by Randall Garrett
http://manybooks.net/titles/garrettgr243...
A future human society is locked in a state of mediocrity by the false philosophy of universal equality. Because of this, we're losing a war. Which prompts one man, who sees that we're going to lose, to switch sides...
A parallel series, "Imperial Stars" explores similar themes. Among the stories (and I'll look up which books they were in later), was one called "No Truce with Kings" about a post-apocalyptic America engage in a civil war between the central-government types and the clannish types.
Another is "That Share of Glory", about a kid who was raised in a pseudo-religious order dedicated to spreading "utilitarian civilization" and "uniting the galaxy", by becoming experts at various cultures and languages, then farming their acolytes out as translators and trade negotiators.
The title is from a Machiavelli quote I've cited here before, and indeed the entire story seems based upon some Machiavellian themes.
Because it turns out that the protagonist's first mission isn't what it seems... nor is his college and order of Heralds...
Volume 1 of Imperial Stars (The Stars at War) contains several good stories, such as "That Share of Glory", but also contains Kipling's, "The Sons of Martha".
I read The Sons of Martha differently now that I've seen/heard/read Atlas Shrugged. When I first read it, I took it for the usual screed of the poor working class against the indolent wealthy.
But, now, I see it as the producers against the moochers. I'm not certain anymore just how Kipling intended it. But it serves my purposes.
http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_martha.h...
If it's a first edition, it's probably moderately valuable.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fishermans-Cat...
Review:
http://wyblog.us/blog/reviews/who-is-han...
I'm about to re-start reading the "Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever" series of books by Stephen R. Donaldson.
Back in 1982, when I was recovering from a bad bout of adult chicken pox, I got a book from the library, "The Illearth War" was the 2nd book in the series (there were actually two series). This was not the book to read at such a low point in my life.
It's the story of a leper... a modern man with leprosy, who's an outcast in his own town. He's lost two fingers to his right hand; he still wears a white-gold wedding ring on his other hand, even though his wife has divorced him.
Each time, he's injured and rendered unconcious, he wakes up having been summoned to "The Land". As a few minutes pass in the real world, weeks can pass in The Land. He cannot return to the real world until his summoner dies. if his injuries are healed in The Land, he's always re-injured before he returns to the real world.
In The Land there is a war between the Creator's people and Lord Foul. The Creator and Lord Foul were "partners" in creating the Land.
Covenant is important because he wields the wild magic of white gold... except he refuses to wield it.
The people of The Land are devoted, dedicated to restoring The Land from the age when Kevin Landwaster destroyed the land trying to defeat Lord Foul. I mean these are the worst anti-randian pieces of crap you can imagine. Dying for the sake of the Land is Tuesday for them. And if you're not willing to die for the sake of the Land, you're a piece of shit.
In order to survive, the sanitorium drilled it into his head that... A=A. He can't allow himself to fall into delusions that he can be cured or that The Land, where he is cured, is real. He's seen to many lepers fall to a repulsive death, for that. This is why, although begged by many characters, he refuses to wield the white gold magic.
It's discovered that he's been lured to the land in order to either get the white gold into Lord Foul's hands, or to wield it and destroy the Law which keeps The Land in existence. But, the Creator chose Convenant to bring the white gold into the land to thwart Lord Foul, knowing that Covenant wouldn't use it, but the temptation would draw Foul out.
Never have I read a more dismal and depressing series of books. Tragedy occurs daily, and seems almost as unending as the dismal tragedy of life in the real world.
In the end of the 2nd series, Covenant ultimately confronts and defeats Lord Foul. I won't go into the details, but in order to do so he has to accept his own importance and his own right to life and happiness.
I won't spoil the ending with details.
Edit: corrected the bit about the hands, after reading some more and realizing my memory was faulty.