List of Pre-reading Resources for Always a Man, Always a Lighthouse Series - Ayn Rand's Life and Philosophy
So, to prepare us for reading/watching/playing both Atlas Shrugged and Bioshock, there a lot of background knowledge we should make ourselves aware of to get the most out of these texts. I have them sorted below for you to see. I’ve personally watched and read through all of these, but I think it’s fine if you just want to take a cursory glance at them or just pick one from each section to get your foundation. This is only the first of at least a few posts. I want to have an understanding not only of Ayn Rand and her philosophy, but the context in which she lived and her influence on our political and to a lesser extent, popular culture. This post is only going to give resources for Ayn Rand’s life and her philosophy. I will mark the resources I think are best with a *.
Ayn Rand’s Philosophy:
Drunken Philosophy Episode #46:
(These guys give a very basic foundation of Ayn Rand’s philosophy. They also have very strong opinions about her and do have some dudebro like discussions. They aren’t toxic, but can be crass.)
I’ll have the essential notes in a different post for subscribers.
Ayn Rand’s Philosophy in 2 minutes:
So, this video was put out by the Ayn Rand Institute. It’s biased with its framing and honestly comes off like propaganda to me. It’s worth watching though because while Drunken Philosophy was very anti-Ayn Rand, this is obviously very pro-Ayn Rand. So, I think it’s worth watching so you can really see how the same ideology is frame so differently based on who it’s coming from.
*What is Objectivism Video:
This is a short video that doesn’t appear to have a bias to it. It’s a pretty straightforward look at objectivism and its core tenets.
*Britannica’s Page on Objectivism
The most important line for us is this quote from Ayn Rand ““a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire” - This is essentially what Rapture is.
The Objectivist’s Ethics:
You can read it for free here.
Truly a terrible read, I’ll be posting my notes and maybe a rant on this in the future.
The Virtue of Selfishness:
This is the only one I haven’t read fully yet, but I will and post my notes (minus The Objectivist’s Ethics as that is included in this, but the OE is the essential bit.)
The Life of Ayn Rand:
I’m only putting 3 resources here. As I feel they give a clear enough picture of her life.
*Ayn Rand: The Virtue of Selfishness:
I think this is probably the best well-rounded look and Ayn Rand’s life. I also found it very telling of the origin of her philosophy and a bit…interesting how her life played out when looking at it through the lens of her own philosophy.
AynRand.org
This one has far less detail, but I think it gives a look at how her fans see her life, which is mostly as a non entity serving only to bring forth this pseudo-philosophy that serves them.
Britannica:
It’s a good, if brief, look at Rand’s life.
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