Chapter 2 Individual Creator──The Source of Human Civilization (1)

first part Individual Creator──The Source of Human Civilization (1) Comments on Ayn Rand's Philosophical Novels Shi Tao After being rejected by twelve major publishing houses in the United States, the philosophical novel was published more than sixty years ago in 1943. At that time, the author was still young and beautiful, only in his thirties, and had not yet become famous and popular.By then she had written Born to Be Human (1936) and Carol (1938), two novels that were hardly read.At that time, the United States was in the midst of World War II, and the flames of war were thickening on the European battlefield. People didn't want to hear Rand's voice at all.But the book was finally published, and then, like all unforeseen miracles, it became a best seller, and it has been a bestseller for more than sixty years, and it is still reprinted with a sales volume of more than 100,000 copies a year.

What is it about this book that makes readers flock to it so much?Could it be that there is a hidden magic in the book, so that the person who opens the page will immediately be fascinated and fascinated by it?According to the standards of literary criticism, the form and content of the novel are extremely simple, and can even be described in harsher terms, such as "huge in length, boring in writing, lack of balance, and lack of rhythm" (see October 8, 2005 " Beijing News, "Rand and Her Utopia" article).Therefore, as a novel, it obviously has power beyond the novel.

The story written by Rand is very simple: Howard Locke, a college student studying architecture, was expelled from school in the third grade because he did not agree with the teacher's traditional teaching.And his "obedient" classmate Peter Gidding was regarded as an outstanding graduate and entered the architect firm founded by an outstanding alumnus of the school, becoming his competitor.Throughout his career, Locke's unorthodox behavior has been disapproved by everyone, and the columnist Ellsworth Toohey has spared no effort to attack him.At the same time, Dominic, Locke's beloved girl, eventually became Peter Gidding's wife.In the construction of a government house, Locke came to an agreement with Peter Gidding to build it exactly according to his design.But the agreement was overturned by government agencies due to public opposition, and the architects had no recourse to legal action - as they had no right to sue the government.Unwilling to tolerate his design being modified arbitrarily, Locke resisted with explosives and blew up the half-built building into a pile of rubble.In court, he also fought alone, defending himself for his original behavior: "Creation is one's own private matter, a natural right, and maintaining creation is an equal natural right of individuals." Released.

Obviously, it is not a literary work in the general sense. On the contrary, it is a typical philosophical novel, that is, it uses the form of novels to convey ideas.Therefore, although it is best-selling, it has never entered the palace of gentle and elegant literary history.However, such examples in history are not uncommon. For example, Voltaire's "Candide", Chernyshevsky's "What to Do", Orwell's, and even Kundera's, can all be regarded as philosophical Fiction.None of these books entered the hall of literature immediately after their publication, but with the mysterious process of history, haven't they all become classics?Today, although it has not yet entered the palace of literary history, it ranked second in the selection of the 100 most popular novels in the 20th century organized by the American Modern Library Press in 2004, and the first was Another Rand novel, Atlas Shrugged.

In any case, in the face of this cultural event that has lasted for more than sixty years, we must face it seriously and try to find out the magic hidden in the book in order to provide readers with an explanation.In fact, the author summed up this magic brilliantly in the preface to the 25th anniversary edition of the book: "One of the fundamental reasons why it has such enduring charm is that it is the recognition of youth's ambition. At the same time, it sings the glory of people and shows how possible people are."