Ayn Rand tidbits!

The other week I taught about Ayn Rand's thought, and then how it related to how she liked to get f*ck*d.

First, I made the kid's read "John Galt's Speech" from Atlas Shrugged and had a major assignment crafted around; it's a really important text in today's world, but it's kind of long if you're not totally into it, so I made sure they *had* to read it for class.

Second, after discussing that and then comparing it to the modern self-esteem movement, I passed out a timeline of how Ayn Rand got into some twisted sexual shit, and then had them read excerpts from a memoir of her one disciple who f*ck*d her and the infamous rape scene from the Fountainhead.

Then, we talked.

Highlights:

1) In our discussion of the speech, one student said she got the feeling that Ayn Rand must have written that speech while having very little contact with anyone else, or at least anyone who thought differently from her.

"Wow," I was like, "That's absolutely right!  That's crazy, you aesthetically intuited history just from the prose style of a philosophical speech...  At one point, she didn't leave her New York City apartment for 33 days in a row."

Then, I added, "She also took a lot of methamphetamines."

2) It was pretty obvious to all the kids that the situation Ayn Rand really doesn't talk about is people who are economically oppressed and really can't get ahead since things are stacked against them.

3) In discussing the rape scene, one pointed out that the man initiates sex - and Ayn Rand had complained to a young disciple that her husband never initiated sex with her (and wasn't rough enough with her, as well).

Someone also added, "It's not really a rape, it's a fantasy of a rape" - to which someone added, "A lot of people do have rape fantasies."

4) One's student research question is to see how much government aid Rand got when she first arrived in the U.S., and at the end of her life.

. . .