From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Mon Jun 03 2002 - 13:40:36 MDT
From: "Max More" <max@maxmore.com>
> At 01:08 AM 6/3/2002 -0700, Olga Bourlin wrote:
> >
> > Ayn had the luxury of sitting around smoking and philosophizing with
> > her group,
>
> Now this part really does annoy me. You're showing ignorance of her life
if
> you think this was a "luxury", as if she hadn't earned it. She came from
> Russia in the 20s, speaking very little English. She taught herself,
worked
> extremely hard and finally got work writing for studios (a remarkable
> accomplishment) and eventually became a best-selling novelist after her
> first major was rejected something like 17 (21?) times. She did *not* have
> an easy life. I also understand that some of her more obnoxious
personality
> traits may have resulted from or been exacerbated by medication that she
> was taking for many years.
Max, why do you presume I know nothing of Ayn's background? I not only know
it, I can give you examples of 100s of my relatives who went through the
whole leaving-Russia-after-the-Revolution routine. I am a Russian immigrant
myself (although, admittedly, I went along for the ride on the tail end and
did not suffer the hardships faced by my older relatives).
And yet, the hardships my relatives faced didn't come anywhere close to the
nightmarish conditions under which many people in the USA lived ... in their
very own country. I'll say it again ... in their very own country. A white
immigrant Jewish-albeit-agnostic woman (i.e., Ayn) could live a far, far
better life than black people anywhere (especially in the South). Ayn
married an American actor. Doors opened. Speaking of "earning" - it's a
luxury even to speculate about whether Ayn "earned anything." My concern at
that time (early 1960s) was with why many black children couldn't swim in
the same pool as "white" children. Whatever did white children "earn" to be
given this privileged status?
Olga
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