We, The Living!!

As is always the practice with me, I returned ‘We the living’ by Ayn Rand to the lending library having taking a month to read that book completely. This has become a habit for me to pick up an AR book and while reading it, complete 2 to 3 other books. Her books are so laden with thoughts that I hate to read them as though it were yet another Sidney Sheldon.

This book is stated to be the closest ever AR’s attempt at autobiography. The prologue by Leonard Peikoff was an eye opener on what the book was about. Post-Russian revolution scene..need there be anything more in the plot to interest a pro-communist???I took that right away from the library’s dust covered shelf after a long search..

AR’s novels are so focussed on the protagonist that as you progress through the novel (I wouldn’t want to use that term to AR’s creations..they just can’t be compared to the earthly Sheldons, Ludlums and Archers), you tend to be part of the character...The previous ones that I had read were : The Fountainhead and Anthem..I don’t remember much of Anthem except that it was a futuristic novel where the ‘I’ doesn’t exist (or does it???)...hmm..Fountainhead’s Howard Roark was brilliant..the final dialogues delivered in the court defending his act of bombing a building (don’t remember whatever that was..) were amazing..

‘We the living’ is a bit different from Fountainhead in the sense that the plot revolves around 3 characters instead of 1: Leo, Andrei and Kira..

Leo – Degenerates slowly and breaks down after he understands that he is on the losing side of a battle..

Andrei - The die-hard communist who ultimately finds the true sense (or nonsense) of the principles he had lived for

Kira – The victor who dies at the end of the struggle.. All the struggle that Kira goes through...the way she supports Leo’s stay at the sanatorium by losing herself to Andrei.her odyssey to get out of Russia..present a poignant picture..

Most of what I infer above is based on the prologue by Leo but I accept all that totally..The novel is a fantastic portrayal of the pathetic state of certain sections of the bourgeois class after the Russian revolution.. to call that ‘Tit for Tat’ for all the power that this class exercised over the Proletariats defeats the spirit of socialism...Empowering the Proletariats never intended beating down the bourgeois...

This question on socialism (initiated by The Fountainhead) inside my half trained mind still remains open (too confusing now..)...I have always maintained that the welfare of the state is of paramount importance..no exceptions..but with each of the AR’s writings that I have completed, I feel if that indeed supersedes the individual’s welfare..After all, everyone lives primarily for the ‘I’ in him...me included..(am none too great to be granted a special status ...still felt like adding that)..perhaps her writings are so greatly realistic in the depiction of a principle...in its personification ...that for some time after completion too many thoughts crowd my mind...I brood over the foundation of socialism (as stated by Marx/Engels) as against the pro-individualistic view taken by AR..only to end up subscribing to both schools..

Am I losing clarity of thought or am I in the process of defining a new Philosophy that combines these two..Only time will answer...

(Interesting to note that this book was rejected by many publishers before being taken up by Macmillan company!!..probably AR was far too ahead of her times..)