Monday, October 24, 2022

Flannery O’Connor: Friends Don’t Let Friends Read Ayn Rand

 I did enjoy The Fountainhead, by the way. Ayn was a good storyteller as long as you resist the seduction of her philosophy. From Open Culture:

In a letter dated May 31, 1960, Flannery O’Connor, the author best known for her classic story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (listen to her read the story here) penned a letter to her friend, the playwright Maryat Lee. It begins rather abruptly, likely because it’s responding to something Maryat said in a previous letter:

I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky.

The letter, which you can read online or find in the book The Habit of Being, then turns to other matters. (Read more.)


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