Ayn Rand Hating on C.S. Lewis

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

"Ayn Rand was no fan of C.S. Lewis. She called the famous apologist an “abysmal bastard,” a “monstrosity,” a “cheap, awful, miserable, touchy, social-meta­physical mediocrity,” a “pickpocket of concepts,” and a “God-damn, beaten mystic.” (I suspect Lewis would have particularly relished the last of these.)"

-- Matthew Schmitz

This seems like a challenge for those who care for neither Christian mysticism nor Ayn Rand rationality.

Comments

[joshthevegan.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that I can say that I agree with Ayn Rand on something.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

"Abysmal bastard" seems a bit harsh and personal, but at least she was clear on not being a supernaturalist.

[joshthevegan.livejournal.com]

The anti-supernatural aspects I'm not on board with her, but the fact that he is a third rate hack who cheaply borrowed concepts from his friends and contemporaries, that I can get behind.

[madscience.livejournal.com]

She also called religion a mental illness. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day...

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Why would that be a challenge? Someone doesn't have to suddenly like Christianity just because Rand didn't. Nor like rand just because she said something they may or may not agree with. Personally I thought CS Lewis was a fairly ok guy even if I don't share his beliefs on the nature of reality.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

It's just that in America, as we saw with Paul Ryan, a lot of firm believers in Ayn Rand have to suffer some embarrassment and contortions to reconcile that belief with their strong belief in Christianity. But, sure, there are many with more nimble minds.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Sure I can see it as a challenge for those that both worship Rand and American Jesus, but not the opposite situation.


( I can't say her first name without finishing with -al because I am 12 years old)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

You appear to have put these three words together as a single concept: "Ayn Rand rationality".

I can't parse that. It simply doesn't make any sense, no matter how I look at it.

Are you sure you didn't mean "Ayn Rand lunacy" or "Ayn Rand idiocy"? Because those make sense.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I mean 'her way of thinking and reasoning', so if you strongly disagree with about everything she says, I suppose you could say lunacy or idiocy. A lot of people do agree with her; this is America.

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

Think "jumbo shrimp."

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of either of them.
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I would pay to watch this version of Narnia, though.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

That is pretty demented - like something Ayn Rand might have dreamed.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

What if I LIKE Narnia but just think that he laid on the allegory a bit too thick?

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

You have a decent heart, but remain realistic?

[american-geist.livejournal.com]

IT'S ALWAYS WINTER BUT NEVER CHRISTMAS!!!

[zanganito.livejournal.com]

At least he was a better writer than she was. Even though that's not much of a compliment for him. : /

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I suppose he had a bit more poetry in his soul. Yet, I must confess that I actually loved "Atlas Shrugged", without believing in its philosophy. I thought it was a great novelization of her ideas with great plotting.

[robintheshrew.livejournal.com]

I don't like either of them

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

That is one way to solve the dilemma.

[macychick.livejournal.com]

What if I'm a Christian who likes C.S. Lewis and doesn't like Ayn Rand?

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Then I guess there's not much to reconcile, and one can dismiss her words as the emotional spasm of a deluded soul, which many people do anyway.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

She left out pedo.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Whoa, are you sure that you aren't confusing C. S. Lewis with Lewis Carroll??

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

C.S. Lewis did not respond in kind to Ayn Rand's criticisms. That gives him +1 for class, at least.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

As her comments were notes she made in her books, maybe he was happily oblivious to her thoughts.