Previously: Ayn Rand, Cat Fancier.
The Letters of Ayn Rand is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It is a perpetual source of comfort and inspiration to me. Every morning, Ayn Rand must have thrust herself forth from her steel bed and asked herself “What is the most Ayn Rand thing that I can do today?”
On May 22, 1949, the answer was to write a letter to her young niece, who had sent her a short note asking to borrow $25 for a new dress. Here was Ayn’s reply.
“No, I won’t send a policeman after you.” DON’T GO SOFT ON ME NOW, AYN.
This letter so perfectly encapsulates everything I find deeply endearing about this bloviating monster. It is 30% very good advice, 50% unnecessary yelling, and 20% nonsense.
This is the last letter in the series! It is DAMN CHARMING! But what happened to the twenty-five dollars? I found an obituary for Connie (at least I’m pretty sure it was her), who died in 2012, and it doesn’t mention this at all. Did she pay her back? If she didn’t, did Ayn send the police after her, or just snub her dead in the street? What did Connie have to say about Ayn’s haircut when they met again? WHAT DID THE DRESS LOOK LIKE?
I'm most confused at the fact that she's only asking to be repaid $15, right? 5+4+3+2+1=15? And that "will repay the total"?
Not an Ayn Rand fan by any means but whenever I read her stuff the thought that goes through my mind is "who hurt you Ayn? It can't just be the bolshevicks"
$25 in 1949 is about $250 in today's money. It's a bit weird to ask your relative who you've never met for $250 no? Maybe Ayn Rand was actually surrounded by some incredibly terrible family and it drove her to her insane levels of misanthropy. Just a thought.
Imagine going down in history as the family member Ayn Rand hated and getting the equivalent of $250. It's totally win-win.
I want to read Connie's manifesto. I think it would be a lot more interesting than Ayn's.
After that, they could communicate telepathically via their burning hot sense of smug, self-satisfaction.
Good lord, I love the idea of asking "What is the most [my name] thing that I can do today?" What an amazing idea!
Actually, Richard and Emily wanted to just give the money to Rory. Rory was the one who insisted it be a loan and laid out her terms, which Richard then countered with more lenient ones.
Sorry, I'm a Gilmore Girls fanatic 🙂
I've always been fascinated by the Wagner-Nietzsche-Cosima brouhaha – all three of them seem like horrible people. I would totally go see a contemporary opera that's all about that.
Connie Shrugged…
"There's no profit in knowing the names of your own sisters."
Well, one must know the proper name of each sibling in order to perform legally-binding transactions with them, but having duplicate ways of addressing them is a wasteful excess.
this is hilarious! Thank You for this post- it brings me back to my high school years of reading Ayn and taking it all too seriously..
These comments are just as entertaining as the letters too.
I just wanted to say that I love EVERY commenter on this page, something that's never happened to me before. I think there's hope for humanity yet.
Is there any other way to play Monopoly?
That Ayn would loan money without charging interest goes against everything a proper capitalist would stand for. Therefore either Ayn or the letter is not the genuine article, or Ayn had a shred of altruism (at least when it came to buying nice dresses).
Oh, yes, this, so much this.
There is apparently some semblance of basic human decency thoroughly hidden in this hardcore "proper person" drill.
I wonder if Rand herself realized this, or if the lack of interest on the loan is some kind of Freudian slip effect, when a tiny, shriveled kernel of empathy has somehow sneaked under the objectivist radar.
The really funny part is that Rand lived off the kindness of relatives when she first moved to the States. Seems rather irresponsible of her to move to a foreign country without sufficient savings to support herself or a steady job waiting for her, eh?
I'll forever be bitter that 'Atlas Shrugged', which is a FANTASTIC book title, was WASTED by Ayn Rand…
I have a feeling she did. Her obituary (Connie's) said she was a nurse and an actor in community theater. I just don't see Connie and AYn having much in common. The story has a link to Connie's obituary, very nice.
I can't stop thinking about how much she would HATE me…
No, its much more amusing if somebody writes a better book, uses the same name, and then becomes more famous, thus erasing Ayn Rand's greatest work from collective memory.
This is honestly amazing
I fucking love you.
"no honest person feels that he is obliged to support his relatives"
Classic!
Your mom fell and broke her hip — let her die in a pool of her own shit!
Your children? You have no obligation to your children. You should only feed infants inasmush as they provide amusement equal in monetary value to cost of raw materials and time invested in food preparation and delivery. After that (usually around 18 months) they are on their own!
Well, that's a "yes, and." Or perhaps "yes, but." Ayn Rand was just a monster in general, this doesn't need to be reestablished in each thing we read about her.
I think the dress was blue, with black trim.
No, wait… white with gold trim.
No, no… it was blue with black trim.
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