GC wrote:
*** I have yet to come across an opponent of Rand’s who is able counter her views without either name-calling or emotive, non-rational arguments. So in that sense, Treycelement (TE) can consider himself or herself quite typical. ***
Shelob isn't worth more'n name-calling and emotive, non-rational argument. Fraud is a much more important figure, but I'm not gonna waste time refuting his charlatanism either.
*** I did not follow TE’s link, above, but assume it refers to Rothbard’s 1987 booklet, The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult, which I already own and have read, in addition to Jeff Walker’s The Ayn Rand Cult (1999). There is a difference, of course, between actually countering Rand’s views, and simply assailing the activities of her followers. It would be the same thing, for example, if I were to judge CAS based upon the postings of TE, here. One does not reflect upon the other. ***
The same thing? Your grasp of analogy is entirely worthy of your idol. a) CAS, not being a megalomaniac, never sought to direct anyone's life and behavior; b) even if he had, my sociopathic trampling on CASean principles takes place many decades after his passing. Shelob was alive and had eyes in her head (lots of 'em) while her followers were at work. If their 'activities' been so at odds with her Philosophy, I suggest she'd've overcome that innate diffidence of hers and issued a mild rebuke or two...
If you DO want 'the same thing,' compare your defense of Rand with a Hot-4-Trot's defense of Lenin against the 'aberrations' of Stalin et al.
*** Whereas CAS is ornate, TE is precious. Where CAS gives hints, TE is vague. Where CAS makes suggestions, TE makes things more obscure. While CAS can sometimes be described as sharp or biting, TE merely seems aggressive or arrogant. While CAS can be seen as stately and dignified, TE comes across mainly as overwrought and pedantic. And whereas CAS writes in a rhythmic, finely-textured prose designed to convey information to the reader, TE writes in a style akin to that of Ezra Pound in the asylum, full of abbreviations, distracting colloquialisms and neologisms, lapses into foreign languages, and cryptic allusions which confuse, rather than convey, his or her meaning. ***
MUYYY bueno -- Tio Trey mucho like the comparison with Onkel Ezra! Your powers of analogy get better when you're out of Shelob's shadow. But saying CAS's prose was 'designed to convey information to the reader' seems-2-me a wee bit non-neuro-normative...
*** I truly doubt CAS would be so dear to me, if TE were to be my sole example of his literary mode or style. ***
Indeed. If Tio Trey were the SOLE example, you wouldn't be aware of CAS's existence. (Not that Tio Trey is an example of anything but his beautiful self.)
*** One could very easily make a religion of irreligion. Make a few dogmatic anti-religious comments here and there. Extol CAS as a “geniusâ€, and make him into a literary deity. ***
I've always been careful NOT to extol him as a genius. Nietzsche was a genius. Beethoven was a genius. CAS had genius. There's a BIG difference. The closest approach to 'a genius' in Weird fiction seems-2-me HPL, not CAS. One reason I prefer CAS to HPL.
*** Play the minority card, in echo of religious persecution [“I'm a member of a minority myself in the concurrent Lovecraft/weird fiction communityâ€]. ***
I played the minority card 'coz I know how The Pious like to group-think.
*** And in lieu of the devil, dress up Tautologies in a devil’s horns and tail, and toss scholarly imprecations toward them whenever you encounter them. A religion of one can still be a religion. ***
And a religion of many can still be a religion of one -- th'ole Obe reeled in CAStrati like Radovarl by appealing to their narcissism. Egotheism keeps MY narcissism safe behind a firewall, so it can't be hacked by people like Rand, Fraud and Obe.
*** >“…I find it literally PAINFUL to read prose like thatâ€;
>“…but I really canNOT cope with the prose.â€
Sounds almost like an absinthe addict who took a swig of carrot juice by mistake. ***
That Shelobian shadow's back. Carrot juice is NOT what it was like.
“The true independent is he who dwells detached and remote from the little herds as well as from the big herd. Affiliating with no group or cabal of mice or monkeys, he is of course universally suspect.†—
The Black Book of Gore Vidal.