| | Age, that horrible thing that begins to happen at 30. This question seems to have an alterior purpose, to gage the chronological position of the readers and participators on this site. It is usually a question only asked by those who are over thirty:) Age is a fiction of the mind, an excuse for hypochondria, and a means of judging ripeness of character, that is usually proved entirely false upon close investigation. I began reading Rand at an age that was less than position I now occupy in the passage of time. I am perhaps too old to recall exactly, and too young to care. I certainly believe that a nonagenarian is too far advanced to benefit from Atlas Shrugged in any life altering way. As Rand said, the proper age to form a mind is very very young. I think she approved of the way the Jesuits swooped up the young before age seven. Unless of course we defy all institutions de facto, including age, which should be the first to go. I propose to abolish the institution of age and start living backwards. Hmm. I don't think that Rand should be read at any age before 20 (or so). She admitted to being a propagandist in a letter to Loeb (1944) and thus is guilty of at least one minor infraction. Minors who don't even know what propaganda is should be led by the hand and taught to distinguish properly between zeal and a proper balance of emotions. Now I am talking like a nonagenarian!! No really, I think Rand's non-fiction books should be read first as they allow one a deeper understanding of what the propaganda is for. Saying this, it might be that Rand was trying to start an aesthetic movement by constantly referring to her literature as evidence of her philosophy and her later assertion that it was propaganda. You will of course excuse my scattered thoughts and adament opinions. I find this question so central to the way in which people read Rand. I read the Romantic Manifesto somewhere between ages 18 and twenty, I think:) I loved it and mostly because it gave me a context by which to relate her thoughts to the aesthetic theories I was studying at university.
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