[lbo-talk] Happy 50th, 'Atlas Shrugged'!

[Carl Remick]

On 9/16/07, joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >[C] On reflection, I thought this Randian Fantasy Island sounded a lot
> >like Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ, the winter home and
> >architectural "school" (read: sweatshop) of Frank Lloyd Wright, one of
> >the 20th century's greatest egomaniacs and bunko artists. ...
> >
> > "The architect hero Howard Roark of Ayn
> >Rand's Fountainhead is generally thought to be based on Wright,
> >although both Rand and Wright denied this."
> >
> [J] That's what I always heard.

I suppose I shouldn't admit this where Doug (staunch non-admirer of
Ralph Waldo Emerson) is likely is likely to read it, but Wright always
claimed to be heavily influenced by Emerson :(

In any event, certainly one of the most insightful allegories about
the American character ever written is Herman Melville's "The
Confidence-Man: His Masquerade," which chronicles a series of swindles
that take place aboard the steamer "Fidèle" ("Faithful") as she
cruises down the Mississippi.  It includes an (unfair!) satiric
portrait of Emerson and Thoreau.  All the events in the novel occur on
a single day -- April Fool's Day (what else?).  The novel itself was
published April 1, 1857 -- droll fellow, Melville.

Carl