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Vaniver comments on What I've learned from Less Wrong - Less Wrong
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Yeah, that's one of the major criticisms of her book, that the poor honest robber-barons were being exploited by the mean old federal regulations, which has nothing to do with the real world.
I actually liked Anthem best of Rand's books, since it didn't pretend to take place in our world, but was set in a dystopian world instead.
You have to admit Rand can really write a page turner, even though her ideas are shit.
Heh, why were you annoyed that you liked Running Jumping Standing Still? You're opposed to music recommendations from writers?
I haven't read Stardance or Very Bad Dreams: what had the tone of being cooler than the mundanes, and what was the sadistic imagination? Why can't you stand him? I'm really not familiar with the tone you're talking about. The only tone that bothers me about SR is the whole "Let's be hippies and work everything out and it'll all be ok" thing. "Free Lunch" in particular. And his argument in one of the Callahan stories that his AGI character would have to be friendly because it wouldn't have human fear or insecurity. And have you read his "Night of Power"?
My favorite Heinlein are any of his short stories, and the novels Methuselah's Children, Time Enough for Love, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, Number of the Beast, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
As far as Lewis, you have to get past the religious stuff obviously, but I loved The Great Divorce.
I'm guessing you might like Robert Sheckley, who has some of the same "telling you what to think" but it's couched in extremely clever, biting satire. Sheer brilliance. He's SF's Mark Twain.
One of the things I find incredibly interesting about Rand and her followers is that Rand is rather good at capturing the spirit of the envious and the bureaucratic, but not very good at making likeable heroes. They tend to be the Steve Jobs sort- it's nice that he exists somewhere far away from me and will sell me things, and he should be as unregulated as possible, but I'd rather not work for him or be his friend.
And so when I've gone to Objectivist meetings, most people there have the same hatreds and same resentments and feel them pretty strongly, but that seems to be the primary binding factor, rather than interest in rationality or personal kindness or shared goals. (I'm not counting everyone wanting to make a bunch of money for themselves as a shared goal.)
Rand looks like she's talking about production, but her real interest is in envy. And I agree with her that it's a terrible thing we shouldn't reward.
I've always thought -- even when I was fourteen and reading it for the first time -- that Atlas Shrugged would have been a better book along every conceivable dimension if Dagny and Rearden had told Galt where to stuff it when they got the chance. Never mind what would have happened later. The guy had all the personality of a wind-up pocketwatch; more importantly, though, (allegedly) charismatic figures brandishing totalizing economic ideologies and apocalyptic predictions tend to get a lot of people killed, and Rand as a child of the Soviets should have known that. Bright engineers and executives that actually struggle and solve problems on-page and appear to feel empathy are a lot more fun to read about.
Of course, then it wouldn't have been a Rand book. You wouldn't be too far wrong if you said -- of any of her books -- that all the economic and political content was window dressing for her depiction of her ideal man, and not the other way around.