Anthem

Seriously, Ayn?I understand Ayn. It was very traumatic for her, after all, she was only 12 - and Jewish - when the revolution ripped apart her life and everything she knew of, and she actually experienced Stalin's Soviet. She was 21 when she moved to USA. BUT she writes like a 16 years old who is still living those days. What I don't understand are the whiny Westerners who don't have any idea of what Ayn Rand went through and what formed her, who think THEY are living in a society Ayn Rand describes. These people haven't read any Soviet social criticism or satire, and don't understand the Russian mindset. So, they are going straight out to the opposite end of the spectrum, from “only we matter” to “only I matter” - how could they understand that Ayn is talking about a situation where “I” actually WAS seen as something nasty, equivalent to exploitation, wish to enslave your fellow human beings, getting rich on the cost of others... so much so that the mere wish to get rich was an expression of wanting to own and exploit your fellow human beings. And which one of us wants to be owned? The slavery in Russia was quite different from the slavery in USA. Uh. Anyway...“My dearest one, it is not proper for men to be without names. There was a time when each man had a name of his own to distinguish him from all other men. So let us choose our names. I have read of a man who lived many thousands of years ago, and of all the names in these books, his is the one I wish to bear. He took the light of the gods and he brought it to men, and he taught men to be gods. And he suffered for his deed as all bearers of light must suffer. His name was Prometheus.” “It shall be your name,” said the Golden One. “And I have read of a goddess,” I said, “who was the mother of the earth and of all the gods. Her name was Gaea. Let this be your name, my Golden One, for you are to be the mother of a new kind of gods.” “It shall be my name,” said the Golden One. So... he's to become the god of all the people he chooses, and she... no-one asks what she wants. She doesn't even get to choose her own name. She is to be the mother of his SONS, daughters need not be born.Reading list;[b:We 76171 We Yevgeny Zamyatin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421883730l/76171.SY75.jpg 2144026][b:Moscow 2042 74399 Moscow 2042 Vladimir Voinovich https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347593949l/74399.SY75.jpg 71964][b:Fahrenheit 451 13079982 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1383718290l/13079982.SY75.jpg 1272463][b:1984 40961427 1984 George Orwell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532714506l/40961427.SX50.jpg 153313][b:Brave New World 5129 Brave New World Aldous Huxley https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1575509280l/5129.SY75.jpg 3204877][b:The Handmaid's Tale 38447 The Handmaid's Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1) Margaret Atwood https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578028274l/38447.SY75.jpg 1119185]